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European and American governments spend money to build infrastructure and push for emissions reduction. Industry executives predict that the global construction industry will enter a "supercycle", and the demand for cement and other building materials will continue to explode for several years. The Financial Times reported on the 9th that Jan Jenisch, CEO of Holcim, a leading global cement manufacturer, predicted,Developed countries are overhauling infrastructure, and the construction boom will continue for several years He said: "The stimulus case will start slowly and drive demand in the next four to five years. I think the construction and building materials industry will enter a "super cycle."Fernando González, CEO of Mexican peer Cemex, agrees. He said that the stimulus case in advanced countries will boost cement demand in emerging markets through remittance and trade. Noble Francis, Director of Construction Products Association, agrees with the above view,It is believed that the construction industry in major markets will have a long-term super cycle. Infrastructure projects and the implementation of net zero emissions by governments of various countries are both important contributions. Related stimulus cases include the $1 trillion infrastructure project proposed by U.S. President Biden,The EU is ready to release 800 billion euros of recovery fund;British Prime Minister Johnson also plans to allocate 600 billion pounds to build infrastructure in the next five years. Cemex Chief Financial Officer Maher Al-Haffar predicts that once the Biden Infrastructure case is passed, the demand for cement in the United States will increase by 20% to 30%. However, he also emphasized that the scale of this super cycle is not comparable to the super cycle triggered by China's unprecedented growth in the 2000s.He said that the scale of this super cycle is considerable, but it may not be as good as the 2000s, but it will last longer. Holcim H1 Earnings New Record According to MarketWatch, Holcim announced its first half-year financial report at the end of July. Recurring EBIT (earnings before interest before tax), free cash flow, and earnings per share all set unprecedented records. In the first half of 2021, Holcim's net sales increased by 16.6% year-on-year to 12.556 billion Swiss francs. During this period, recurring EBIT broke a new high, reaching 1.983 billion Swiss francs, an annual increase of 72.2%. Earnings per share soared 77.8% to 1.43 Swiss francs. Free cash flow reached 814 million Swiss francs.

The worldˇs largest cryptocurrency is staging a comeback that has taken it up more than 50% from recent lows, reviving animal spirits and coaxing out sky-high price targets that, while a source of comedy for some, emerge when the asset is rallying. Out are predictions the digital currency was ready to retest $20,000 amid a slew of negative headlines that many said would push it lower. Back in vogue are calls for the coin to keep rallying again to its all-time highs and beyond. And there are plenty of superlatives to mark the moment: Bitcoin is up four weeks straight and is on pace for its second monthly advance. Overall, itˇs seen its fastest 21-day advance since February, the last time it was in the midst of vaulting toward records. Bitcoin was largely flat in Asian trading, holding at about $45,530 as of 10:36 a.m. in Hong Kong. ¨Itˇs roaring back,〃 Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at crypto fund provider CoinShares, said by phone. Despite new regulatory scrutiny, ¨many investors perceive this as positive news and a positive catalyst because itˇs clearing up a lot of the confusion or some of the uncertainty. And I think whatˇs being demonstrated as well is the crypto community is no longer some esoteric corner of finance.〃 The cryptocurrency is defying criticism over its toll on the environment and is advancing even as regulators around the world are promising tougher crackdowns. China, for one, has taken a number of steps to clamp down on crypto mining, among other things. In the U.S., policy makers are focusing on digital assets in a new way, with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler last week calling the space the ¨Wild West.〃 He said he wouldnˇt compromise on protecting investors in setting out a regulatory framework. Strategists are tossing those worries aside for now and are, instead, bringing out soaring price targets, which have long been a part of the investment thesis behind getting into cryptocurrencies. ¨Itˇs still got plenty of room to get the old high,〃 Bloomberg Intelligenceˇs Mike McGlone said in a television interview. ¨And guess what? If it just follows Ethereum, it goes to $100,000,〃 he said, referring to Bitcoin catching up, percentage-wise, to the second tokenˇs performance. Fundstrat Global Advisorsˇ Tom Lee also sees it reaching $100,000 -- by the end of 2021. The firmˇs co-founder and head of research recommends investors follow a simple rule: If Bitcoin crosses above its average price over the last 200 days -- a long-term momentum measure -- then itˇs time to buy. The coin crossed that hurdle in recent days. ¨With Bitcoin crossing above its 200D, we think Bitcoin will rally strongly into,〃 year-end, Lee wrote in a note. The rally comes despite potential new tax reporting requirements. A change to cryptocurrency reporting rules in Congressˇ infrastructure bill was blocked Monday, leaving language for broad oversight of virtual currencies in the legislation that was later passed in the Senate Tuesday.

According to Coinmarketcap, Ether has risen by more than 5% in the last 24 hours to reach US$2787, and it has risen by 20% in the last 7 days. In contrast, Bitcoin has fallen slightly in the last 24 hours, at a level close to $39,000, and has fallen by 2.7% in the last 7 days. In recent days, the trend of Ether is much stronger than that of Bitcoin. In this upgrade, 5 community proposals are embedded in the code of the Ethereum network. Among them, EIP-1559 is a solution to the pricing mechanism of Ethereum network transactions, which has attracted much attention. The contents of the remaining 4 EIPs include: optimizing the user experience of smart contracts and enhancing the security of the implementation of fraud proof layer 2 networks ; solving the current attacks caused by the use of the gas return mechanism, thereby freeing up more areas Block available resources ; facilitate the future update of Ethereum ; help developers to better transition to Ethereum 2.0. EIP-1559 drastically changed the calculation method of transaction fees, making transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain more predictable and cheaper. Users need to pay basic fees and priority fees when initiating a transaction. The basic fee is a fixed part of the network fee per block. The Ethereum protocol will determine the transaction fee through an algorithm based on the overall demand on the network. The basic fee will be destroyed, and the miner will not receive this fee. Priority fees are used to adjust network congestion. For users who want transactions to be executed as soon as possible, they can set high priority fees to ensure that transactions are included immediately. Why is this upgrade necessary? For transactions that occur on Ethereum, the previous charging scheme was an auction mechanism. The user bids, and the miner selects the transaction with the highest bid and packs it into the block. This method seems simple and efficient. In fact, there are some drawbacks, including: the transaction fee is unpredictable and sometimes extremely high; the efficiency of bidding is very low; the transaction may need to wait for several blocks to be packaged in, so it is easy to cause delays ; Security is in doubt. Before this hard fork upgrade, the market generally expected that EIP-1559 might cause the price of Ether to rise. In the past three years, the circulation of Ethereum has grown at a rate of 5% per year. Through the basic cost of burning Ethereum, the EIP-1559 agreement may reduce the annual change of Ethereum's circulation to 1-2%. The upgrade of the Ethereum network is of great significance, and it is the most critical upgrade before the iteration of Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0. At present, investors are particularly concerned about ESG. Compared with the energy-intensive Bitcoin blockchain, it is expected that Ethereum 2.0 will become more energy-efficient by the end of 2022. Ethereum 2.0 has shifted from the energy-intensive "Proof-of-Work validation" to the "Proof-of-Stake". Therefore, less computing power and energy consumption are required to maintain the Ethereum network.