Cover Story: U.S.-China Call a Truce, But Global Trade Has Changed Forever

Cooling indicators: Three major Chinese economic indicators lost steam in April. Fixed-asset investment growth moderated to 4% year-on-year in the first four months of 2025, driven by slowing growth in manufacturing investment and a sharper decline in real estate development investment. Retail sales growth slowed to 5.1% year-on-year in April, missing expectations, partly due to continued weakness in auto sales. Industrial production growth slowed to 6.1% year-on-year in April, though above expectations. While growth in production of goods like new-energy vehicles and solar cells remained robust above 30%, the value of delivered industrial exports slowed sharply, possibly an effect of the U.S. tariff hikes.

Nvidia’s AI supercomputer: Nvidia Corp. announced Monday it is working with Foxconn to build an artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer in Taiwan powered by 10,000 of its most advanced chips. Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council will use this system to provide AI cloud computing resources to external parties. TSMC also plans to use this system for research and development.

Property price pause: A four-month rise in first-tier city home prices stalled in April in a sign that government policies to pep up China’s limp property market may have run their course. Government data released Monday showed prices of new commercial residences were flat from the previous month in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Home prices in these cities are seen as a bellwether for China’s real estate market. That raises questions about the recovery of the economically-important housing market, especially considering the paltry price increases leading up to April. First-tier home prices rose 0.1% month-on-month on average in each of the first three months of the year. In December, they rose 0.2%.

CATL’s swap pitch: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) (300750.SZ) is trying to sell battery swapping as the way to speed up the slow uptake of electric vehicles in the market for semi-tractor trailers and other heavy-duty trucks. EVs made up about 10% of the heavy-duty truck market last year, but CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun predicted Sunday that the figure will rise to 50% within three years. That would be good for CATL, which has been pushing the swapping business as a way to expand beyond battery-making. The battery giant is betting the service can solve the “range-anxiety” that has been a major obstacle to the adoption of EVs.

BYD’s battery bet: Automaker and battery producer BYD Co. Ltd. (002594.SZ) has taken another step into the immense market for batteries that power electric scooters and other two-wheeled EVs. On Saturday, BYD held a launch event for lithium batteries for two- and three-wheeled EVs. It’s an enormous and growing market. For the past three years, sales of electric scooters have averaged around 50 million. Still, BYD won’t have an easy time bringing lithium batteries to a market dominated by cheaper lead-acid power cells. It will face competition from several entrenched producers if it tries to expand sales to more vehicle manufacturers. And for the consumer end, which depends heavily on replacement sales, BYD may actually be at a disadvantage because of the longer lifespan of its lithium batteries.