Posted on 10 Jun 2022
Over January-May, China's foreign trade value grew by 8.3% on year to Yuan 16.04 trillion ($2.51 trillion), according to the latest release by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on Thursday. Within the total, the value of the country's exports rose 11.4% on year to Yuan 8.94 trillion, and that of imports gained 4.7% on year to Yuan 7.1 trillion.
For May alone, China's trade value added up to Yuan 3.45 trillion, or up 9.6% on year, among which exports hiked 15.3% on year to Yuan 1.98 trillion, while imports increased 2.8% on year to Yuan 1.47 trillion.
During the past five months, the ASEAN region sat atop China's list of trade partners, with its trade value adding 8.1% on year to Yuan 2.37 trillion, or accounting for 14.8% of the total. The European Union and the U.S. followed the ASEAN region, with their trade value with China totaling Yuan 2.2 trillion and Yuan 2 trillion respectively, or up 7% and 10.1% on year, according to the GACC.
As for the "Belt and Road Initiative" countries, their trade value with China amounted to Yuan 5.11 trillion, up 16.8% on year or contributing to 31.9% of the total, Mysteel Global noted from the GACC release.
Over January-May, China's privately-owned enterprises contributed Yuan 7.86 trillion in total foreign trade value, up 11.8% on year, and the private sector's share in the total grew by 1.5 percentage points from 2021 to 49%, the GACC data showed.
Among major products China exported abroad during the last five months, those of machinery, electrical goods and electronics posted a 7% on-year gain to Yuan 5.11 trillion, or about 57.2% of the country's total export value.
For China's bulk commodities imports over January-May, iron ore saw declines in both import volume and average price, with the former falling 5.1% on year to 447 million tonnes and the latter dropping 28.1% on year to Yuan 789.6/tonne.
In addition, the GACC data indicated that crude oil, coal and natural gas saw their import volume decrease, while their respective average price moved up, among which coal posted the largest on-year growth of 105.3% in price, reaching Yuan 1,018.2/t, while its volume fell 13.6% on year to nearly 96 million tonnes.
Source:Mysteel Global
