Posted on 15 Oct 2020
China’s foreign trade value in terms of Yuan finally turned positive on-year by the end of September, recording a gain for the first time this year, the country’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) shared at a press conference on October 13, highlighting that during the third quarter, the country’s total trade value, and the values of imports and exports, were all at respective record highs.
Over January-September, the total value of China’s two-way trade grew 0.7% on year to a total of Yuan 23.1 trillion ($3.4 trillion), among which exports were worth approximately Yuan 12.7 trillion, or up 1.8% on year, while imports totalled Yuan 10.4 trillion, still down 0.6% on year.
For the July-September quarter, the country’s total foreign trade value was at about Yuan 8.9 trillion, or up 7.5% on year, among which, exports grew 10.2% on year to Yuan 5 trillion, and imports were up 4.3% on year to about Yuan 3.9 trillion.
China’s market share in global trade had been on the rise too, according to Li Kuiwen, the GACC’s spokesperson, illustrating that over January-July, China accounted for 13.8% of the global exports and 11.3% of the world-wide imports, up 1.1 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point on year respectively.
However, “China’s foreign trade environment will remain complicated and precarious,” he warned at the press conference.
“The pandemic is still spreading globally, the world’s industrial and supply chains have been clogged, and there has been a trend of reversing globalization,” he observed. “Trade protectionism has been on the rise... and the uncertainties and instability are intensifying in the global market,” he pointed out.
As for China’s bilateral trade partners, the rankings in value stayed the same - with the ASEAN region being the largest, followed by the European Union, the U.S., and Japan, according to the Customs data. The ASEAN region also posted the highest on-year growth over January-September - 7.7% - to about Yuan 3.4 trillion, or 14.6% of the total, and the EU’s trade value rose by 2.9% on year to Yuan 3.2 trillion.
Separately, the countries along the “Belt & Road Initiative” route saw their total trade value with China approach Yuan 6.8 trillion in the first nine months, up 1.5% on year and representing about 29% of China’s total foreign trade value.
By the end of September, the value of China’s machinery, electronics and electrical appliance exports stayed in the expansion zone, posting a 3.2% on-year rise in value to Yuan 7.5 trillion, or accounting for 58.7% of China’s total export value, slightly higher than the 58.5% for the first eight months.
Among China’s enterprises, the privately-owned firms remained the top contributors or ‘the stabilizers’ by generating Yuan 10.7 trillion in total trade value in the first three quarters of 2020, up 10.2% on year or accounting for 46.1% of the total, the GACC data show. This was higher than the proportion of 42.1% a year ago.
At the press conference, Li was asked about Sino-Australia trade, which has become a hot topic - especially with the latest speculation about China’s temporarily halting Australian coal imports, which Li did not answer directly, but highlighting the fact that the two countries’ bilateral trade reached approximately Yuan 860 billion over January-September, down 1.1% on year or accounting for 1.1% of China’s total trade value.
Among the total, China’s export value to Australia grew 9.5% on year while the value of China’s Australian imports fell 5.1% on year to Yuan 601 billion, with iron ore, natural gas, and coal being the core products or accounting for 76.4% of the total imports value, he added.
Written by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
Source:Mysteel Global
