Macroeconomics

1. [Federal Reserve] Regarding the first Federal Reserve interest rate decision of 2026, scheduled to be released Wednesday afternoon US time (Thursday morning Beijing time), Nick Timiraos, known as the "Fed's mouthpiece," wrote on Tuesday that Fed officials are not expected to cut interest rates, and the more difficult question is under what circumstances the Fed will resume cutting rates.

2. [US Consumer Confidence Index] The US consumer confidence index for January fell significantly from a revised 94.2 in December to 84.5, the lowest level since May 2014.

3. [India-EU Trade Agreement] India and the European Union have reached a trade agreement. Under the India-EU agreement, tariffs on more than 90% of EU export goods will be eliminated or reduced. Car tariffs will be gradually reduced to 10%, with an annual quota of 250,000 vehicles, six times the previous UK agreement. Tariffs of up to 44% on machinery, 22% on chemicals, and 11% on pharmaceuticals will be largely eliminated.

4. [Automotive] According to the latest data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), EU passenger car sales increased by 5.8% year-on-year to 963,319 units in December 2025. In 2025, EU passenger car sales increased slightly by 0.8% to approximately 10.6 million units.

Building Materials

1. [Glass] Gansu Kaisheng Daming Guangneng Technology Co., Ltd., Gansu Kaisheng Line 1 (designed capacity of 600 tons/day), resumed production and ignited its furnace on January 25. 2. [Corrugated Paper] Recently, Rongcheng Paper announced its maintenance shutdown plan for the Spring Festival period in 2026, involving 10 paper machines across three major bases. Based on Rongcheng Paper's designed production capacity, the shutdown of these 10 paper machines is expected to reduce production by approximately 156,500 tons of corrugated cardboard.

3. [Corrugated Paper] Nine Dragons Paper's Chongqing base increased the price of corrugated paper by 50 RMB/ton starting January 26th.

Shandong Century Sunshine Paper increased the price of corrugated base paper by 30 RMB/ton from January 26th.

Dezhou Taiding New Material Technology Co., Ltd. increased the price of high-strength corrugated base paper by 30 RMB/ton from January 26th.

If you have any enquiries or purchasing needs, please feel free to contact SunSirs with support@sunsirs.com.