Canon’s Zhongshan factory has confirmed that it will cease production on November 21, 2025. The main reasons are the shrinking laser printer market and intensified competition from domestic brands. Employee compensation is being processed concurrently.

Latest Developments Regarding the Canon Zhongshan Factory Production Ceasedown

Cessation Confirmation: Canon (China) officially confirmed that the Zhongshan factory ceased production on November 21, and employees are temporarily on leave until the 28th.

Core Reasons:

The global laser printer market continues to shrink, and the rapid rise of domestic brands is squeezing market share.

The popularization of paperless offices is accelerating industry transformation, leading to a sharp decline in demand for traditional office printers.

Operating Data: Established in 2001, the factory has produced a cumulative total of 110 million laser printers, with a total industrial output value of approximately 3.2 billion yuan in 2022. At its peak, it employed 10,000 people, but by 2024, the number of employees had decreased to 3,372. Employee Placement: As of November 30th, some employees have received compensation under their confidentiality agreements. The specific plan includes economic compensation and re-employment support.

The gold market experienced a dramatic plunge this week. Just one day after reaching a record high of $4,381 per ounce, spot gold prices（金価格）abruptly changed course on the evening of October 21, plummeting and breaking through the $4,100 mark, marking the largest single-day drop since April 2013.

This violent fluctuation caught many investors off guard. In fact, every rise and fall in gold prices is closely related to its unique pricing mechanism and multiple influencing factors.

The “London Gold,” considered the global benchmark, has undergone a century-long evolution in its pricing mechanism. In its inception in 1919, “London Gold” was jointly determined by five major gold dealers, including the Rothschild family, through telephone negotiations within the “Gold Room.” This system relied on London’s position as the world’s gold trading center and operated through an over-the-counter trading model. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), established in 1987, integrated the fragmented trading markets and established a unique delivery system based on 400-ounce gold bars, making London the global gold distribution center. In 2015, the pricing mechanism was reformed again. Through a modern electronic auction system, pricing meetings were held in the mornings and afternoons of weekdays in London, with the participation of several designated international banks, including HSBC and JPMorgan Chase.

The pricing meetings resembled a digital “gold auction”: banks collected buy and sell orders from global clients, continuously submitting bids on an electronic platform until a balance price was found that matched the most buy and sell orders. This final price became the LBMA gold benchmark price, immediately becoming the authoritative basis for pricing global spot gold trading and derivatives.

Factors Affecting Gold Prices

As a safe-haven asset that transcends economic cycles, gold price fluctuations are always closely related to core variables such as the global economic landscape, geopolitical risks, and monetary policy trends.

“Gold and silver are not naturally money, but money is naturally gold and silver.” This classic statement by Marx reveals the special status of gold in the monetary system.

During the gold standard era, the key to whether a country’s currency was accepted by other countries lay in the strength of its gold reserves. After World War II, leveraging its nearly 75% global gold reserves, the United States established the Bretton Woods system, centered on the dollar’s peg to gold, laying the foundation for the dollar’s credibility as the international reserve currency.

However, the decoupling of the dollar from gold in 1971 marked a significant turning point in modern monetary history. Subsequently, US Treasury bonds gradually replaced gold as the primary reserve asset for central banks worldwide. In recent years, with occasional signs of US Treasury default risk, cracks have begun to appear in the dollar’s credit system, prompting global central banks and investors to increase their gold holdings as a crucial tool for hedging against dollar credit risk—the underlying logic behind the sustained rise in gold prices since last year.

Beyond the changes in the dollar’s credit system, multiple factors are influencing the balance of gold: geopolitical tensions ignite investors’ safe-haven demand; unprecedented increases in global central bank holdings, coupled with continued accumulation by institutional investors, provide solid structural support for gold prices; and capital flows and market sentiment act as amplifiers, amplifying every subtle change in price fluctuations.

Returning to the recent “gold price plunge” that has attracted market attention, its direct trigger is precisely the imbalance in the short-term trading structure. The sustained rise in gold prices since September has led to a crowded gold bull market, accumulating substantial profits. When prices reached key levels, the concentrated profit-taking and exit of these positions ultimately triggered this technical correction.

History has repeatedly shown that gold’s long-term value coexists with the risk of short-term high-level volatility. In a noisy market, remaining calm and resisting the temptation to chase high prices is key to protecting wealth.

Following the Myanmar government’s large-scale crackdown on KK rings, locals reported that many KK ring workers moved to nearby rings, which continue to operate normally.

According to Thai media reports, another 100-acre (40-hectare) ring near Mae Thao Talai Village, not far from the KK ring, is still operating normally. Locals say at least a dozen rings between Myawaddy and Mae Thao Talai are operating normally, and that scammers who fled the KK rings have relocated to these rings.

With the ASEAN summit expected to discuss the crackdown on scams, Myanmar is under pressure to take a tougher stance against the rings. From October 24th to 27th, the Myanmar military carried out daily demolitions at the KK rings. The explosions were so powerful that they could be heard in Mae Sot, Thailand, and thick smoke filled the air for several minutes. Thailand stated that Myanmar had informed the Thai side of the crackdown in advance, and Thai officials used loudspeakers to warn residents near the border to exercise caution. The explosions reportedly did not affect Thai territory.

Reports indicate that while the KK campus was subjected to continuous blasting, operations at other nearby campuses were not affected. A staff member at a scam campus in Myawaddy stated that operations remained normal and employees were still able to access the company-provided internet. SpaceX previously announced it had cut service to over 2,500 Starlink devices at the KK campus, but the campus still had access to Mytel Telecom in Myanmar and fiber optic lines from Thailand.

Currently, due to the Myanmar government’s crackdown on scam campuses, the number of people leaving Myanmar and entering Thailand has risen to 1,525. Thai authorities expect the number of foreigners entering the country to increase further in the coming days. Authorities will discuss the issue with the National Security Council to determine the management protocols, legal procedures, and funding needed to handle the influx.

On October 28, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun hosted a regular press conference.

A Japanese TV reporter asked: US President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held their first meeting, during which both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the US-Japan alliance. What is China’s comment?

Guo Jiakun emphasized that due to Japan’s history of modern militarist aggression, Japan’s military and security developments have always drawn close attention from its Asian neighbors and the international community. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. We urge Japan to earnestly respect the security concerns of its neighbors, deeply reflect on its history of aggression, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete actions.

On the 15th local time, international gold prices (金価格)continued their upward trend, supported by rising expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut and increased safe-haven demand driven by global trade tensions. London spot gold prices hit a new intraday high of $4,200.23 per ounce. New York gold futures were trading above $4,200 per ounce. As of 3:10 PM Beijing time on the 15th, London spot gold prices were at $4,200.14 per ounce, a 1.4% increase on the day.

December gold futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were at $4,218.21 per ounce, a 1.32% increase on the day. So far this year, geopolitical and economic uncertainties, expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut, a surge in gold purchases by major central banks worldwide, and increased holdings of gold ETFs have contributed to a surge in international gold prices exceeding 55%. Analysts at Bank of America and Societe Generale recently predicted that gold prices will reach $5,000 per ounce by 2026, while Standard Chartered Bank has raised its average gold price forecast for next year to $4,488 per ounce.

Driven by the surge in gold prices, silver prices have risen rapidly this year. As of Monday’s close, London spot silver closed at $52.27 per ounce, a year-to-date increase of 76.53%, surpassing gold’s cumulative gains.