The coronavirus will cut China’s early 2020 car sales

Keyword(s):  

Headline CHINA: The coronavirus will cut early 2020 car sales

Subject The platinum market outlook. Significance After declining in 2015, the platinum price has remained modest this year, underperforming other mined commodities. The closely watched ratio to the gold price is near a historic low. Demand from the automotive sector has yet to recover from emission test scandals, despite car sales in China growing by 15.6% year-on-year in the first eleven months of 2016. South African miners are capital-constrained and the global market is currently estimated to be in a supply deficit of around 500 thousand ounces (koz). However, registered above-ground stocks are still significant at 1.9 million ounces (moz). Impacts Higher steel prices may increase scrap-steel demand, which may boost vehicle scrapping and increase recycling of platinum auto-catalysts. World leader Amplats will lose 75 koz of refined platinum production following a leak at the Waterval smelter. Production of alluvial platinum in the far east of Russia is entering terminal decline after two decades of operation.


Significance New car sales in Russia are rising for the first time since 2012 with a 5% year-on-year increase reported for January-May. Despite the automotive sector slump of 2014-15, most foreign companies with existing manufacturing or assembly capacity have taken the long view and remained in the market. Impacts Russian-badged cars will remain market leaders due to their affordability. Growth in local automobile manufacturing will provide additional impetus to related sectors such as metallurgy and chemical industries. Energy ministry projections that Russia might have 200,000 electric vehicles by 2020 seem overly optimistic.


Keyword(s):  

Headline RUSSIA: Car sales to fall as buyers face income shock


Significance Supply this year has been mildly affected by pandemic disruption, and inventories have fallen due to lower levels of recycling. Demand has been tempered by weak automobile sales, although rising emissions standards should mean that more palladium is needed for every hybrid, diesel or petrol car that is produced. Impacts Low confidence and high uncertainty are weighing on car sales; the annual rate of US car sales is 25% lower in 2020 than in recent years. With metal prices high and automakers under cost pressure, thrifting and substitution in auto-catalysts are the main threats to palladium. High palladium prices make stealing catalytic converters worthwhile: 8,248 cars were stolen in London last year, a sevenfold increase.


Keyword(s):  

Headline ARGENTINA/BRAZIL: New car sales will stay depressed


Subject Anti-money laundering efforts. Significance July 17 will mark two years since the 'Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Illicit Resources' came into force. The law regulates sectors considered susceptible to money laundering, such as property development, construction, car sales and art sales which were left out of earlier legislation on financial transactions. The provisions -- enacted by the President Enrique Pena Nieto government -- were welcomed by international regulators such as the Financial Action Task Force, which, in its February 2014 evaluation report, said that Mexico had successfully addressed most of its outstanding recommendations. Impacts High demand for illegal narcotics will continue to fuel money laundering despite improved laws. Anti-laundering legislation will have mixed effects in both financial and non-financial sectors. The finance ministry and Financial Intelligence Unit are receptive to feedback, amending regulation accordingly. The legislation's unintended consequences in the banking sector have been compounded by stringent foreign anti-laundering provisions.


Author(s):  
Jeeyun Oh ◽  
Mun-Young Chung ◽  
Sangyong Han

Despite of the popularity of interactive movie trailers, rigorous research on one of the most apparent features of these interfaces – the level of user control – has been scarce. This study explored the effects of user control on users’ immersion and enjoyment of the movie trailers, moderated by the content type. We conducted a 2 (high user control versus low user control) × 2 (drama film trailer versus documentary film trailer) mixed-design factorial experiment. The results showed that the level of user control over movie trailer interfaces decreased users’ immersion when the trailer had an element of traditional story structure, such as a drama film trailer. Participants in the high user control condition answered that they were less fascinated with, absorbed in, focused on, mentally involved with, and emotionally affected by the movie trailer than participants in the low user control condition only with the drama movie trailer. The negative effects of user control on the level of immersion for the drama trailer translated into users’ enjoyment. The impact of user control over interfaces on immersion and enjoyment varies depending on the nature of the media content, which suggests a possible trade-off between the level of user control and entertainment outcomes.


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-54
Author(s):  
Wanyenda Leonard Chilimo

 There is scant research-based evidence on the development and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories (IRs) in Africa, and in Kenya in particular. This article reports on a study that attempted to fill that gap and provide feedback on the various OA projects and advocacy work currently underway in universities and research institutions in Kenya and in other developing countries. The article presents the findings of a descriptive study that set out to evaluate the current state of IRs in Kenya. Webometric approaches and interviews with IR managers were used to collect the data for the study. The findings showed that Kenya has made some progress in adopting OA with a total of 12 IRs currently listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and five mandatory self-archiving policies listed in the Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROARMAP). Most of the IRs are owned by universities where theses and dissertations constitute the majority of the content type followed by journal articles. The results on the usage and impact of materials deposited in Kenyan IRs indicated that the most viewed publications in the repositories also received citations in Google Scholar, thereby signifying their impact and importance. The results also showed that there was a considerable interest in Swahili language publications among users of the repositories in Kenya.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlyn Johnston ◽  
William E. Davis

In the present study, we examined how the influence of exercise-related social media content on exercise motivation might differ across content type (with images vs. without images) and account type (individual vs. corporate). Using a 2 × 2 within-subjects experimental design, 229 participants viewed a series of 40 actual social media posts across the four conditions (individual posts with images, corporate posts with images, individual posts without images, and corporate posts without images) in a randomized order. Participants rated the extent to which they felt each social media post motivated them to exercise, would motivate others to exercise, and was posted for extrinsic reasons. Participants also completed other measures of individual differences including their own exercise motivation. Posts with images from individuals were more motivating than posts with images from corporations; however, corporate posts without images were more motivating than posts without images from individuals. Participants expected others to be similarly motivated by the stimuli, and perceived corporate posts as having been posted for more extrinsic reasons than individuals’ posts. These findings enhance our understanding of how social media may be used to promote positive health behaviors.


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