Interim Report 2021

合豐集團控股有限公司 二零二一年中期報告 33 MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS BUSINESS REVIEW In the first half of 2021, the pandemic remained severe around the globe. The first quarter saw a promising growth in GDP, which was slowed down again in the second quarter. This reflected that the pace of economic recovery was volatile and relied on the control of the outbreak. This, coupled with the outbreak in Guangdong in May, has left market demand for corrugated packaging in a precarious state. S i nce 2021 , t he Ch i nese gov e r nmen t has prohibited wastepaper imports, and thus upstream manufacturers of the corrugated packaging industry have found it difficult to source raw materials to make containerboard. At the same time, domestic wastepaper demand rose and pushed up prices to high levels. Despite the increase in corrugated packaging products prices, the cost of wastepaper was too high that the Group could not pass on the rising costs to our customers entirely. In addition, global consumer demand remained highly unstable. As a result, the corrugated packaging industry was under tremendous pressure. As the Group’s upstream business has been affected by the supply of waste paper and the rising costs of other raw materials for making containerboard, on the basis of costs consideration, the Group has been purchasing some containerboard overseas for supplying our downstream business for the production of corrugated paper boards and carton boxes. The payment of containerboard imports was settled in US dollars, but the Group’s revenue was mainly generated from domestic sales denominated in Renminbi. Fluctuations in the Renminbi exchange rate have as a result put pressure on the Group. Fortunately, the Renminbi exchange rate remained relatively stable in the first half of 2021, which had no adverse effects on the Group’s profitability. 管理層討論及分析 業務回顧 二零二一年上半年，全球疫情形勢依然 嚴峻，第一季國內生產總值增長勢頭不 俗，惟第二季增速放緩，反映復蘇動力 仍受制於疫情控制，經濟仍處於復蘇當 中，加上五月份廣東省曾爆發疫情，令 市場對瓦楞包裝的需求處於不穩狀態。 於二零二一年起，中國政府禁止廢紙進 口，以致瓦楞包裝業之上游企業缺乏主 要原材料來製造箱板紙，國內廢紙卻因 需求上升而價格持續高企。縱使瓦楞包 裝產品之銷售價格有所上升，但高企的 廢紙成本未能完全轉嫁予客戶，加上全 球消費需求仍然不穩，對瓦楞包裝企業 造成沉重的負擔。 由於本集團之上游業務受制於廢紙及其 他原料成本上漲，基於成本考慮，集團 便在國外採購部分箱板紙，供應給集團 之下游業務製造瓦楞紙板及紙箱，而箱 板紙以美元結算，但集團主要收入來自 人民幣的內銷業務，因此人民幣匯率的 波動對集團構成一定的壓力。而人民幣 匯率於二零二一年上半年相對平穩，對 集團未有構成負面影響。