Posted on 08 Mar 2023
China's foreign trade value declined by a tiny 0.8% on year during the first two months of the year to total Yuan 6.18 trillion ($895.7 billion), according to the latest data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on Tuesday. Within the total, the value of the country's exports edged up 0.9% on year to Yuan 3.5 trillion, while that of imports fell 2.9% on year to Yuan 2.68 trillion.
China usually combines the foreign trade data for January-February to negate the disruptions to trade caused by the Chinese New Year holiday, which either falls in January or in February each year, Mysteel Global notes.
China's top trade partner over January-February was the ASEAN region, with the total trade value amounting to Yuan 951.9 billion, up 9.6% on year or accounting for 15.4% of the total. Second largest was the European Union, though the trade value with China dropped by 2.6% on year to Yuan 851.1 billion, contributing 13.8% of the total value, according to Customs.
As for China's trade value with the "Belt and Road Initiative" countries, this result came in at Yuan 2.12 trillion, rising by 10.1% on year or contributing to 34.3% of the country's total value for the first two months of 2022, Mysteel Global calculated based on the GACC data.
Over January-February, privately-owned Chinese enterprises posted a 5.3% on-year increase in their foreign trade value to Yuan 3.16 trillion, with their share of the total climbing by 3 percentage points from the same period in 2022 to 51.2%, the GACC data showed.
Among the major products China shipped abroad during the first months, the value of machinery, electrical products and electronics witnessed a 0.4% on-year uptick to Yuan 2.03 trillion, accounting for 58% of the country's export value.
As for China's bulk commodity imports over January-February, both iron ore and coal posted on-year rises in volume, but their average unit prices declined over the same period, the Customs data showed.
During the period, China's iron ore import volume grew by 7.3% on year to 194 million tonnes, while its unit price lost 4.5% on year to Yuan 733.4/t. The volume of foreign coal imported soared by 70.8% on year to 60.6 million tonnes, while the unit price slid 11.3% on year to Yuan 947/t.
Meanwhile, the country's crude oil imports decreased by 1.3% on year to 84.1 million tonnes over January-February, with the unit price rising by 3.7% on year to Yuan 4,058.5/t, the Customs data indicated. Imports of natural gas fell by 9.4% on year to 17.9 million tonnes, while the average unit price gained 8.4% on year to Yuan 4,598/t.
Source:Mysteel Global
