Posted on 08 Jun 2023
China's foreign trade value marked a 4.7% on-year growth over January-May to reach Yuan 16.77 trillion ($2.44 trillion), according to the latest data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on June 7. Within the total, the country's export value amounted to Yuan 9.62 trillion in the past five months, growing by 8.1% on year, and that of imports saw an uptick of 0.5% on year to Yuan 7.15 trillion, the Customs data show.
For May alone, China's foreign trade value edged up 0.5% from the previous year to total Yuan 3.45 trillion, among which exports fell 0.8% on year to Yuan 1.95 trillion while imports gained 2.3% from last May to reach Yuan 1.5 trillion, according to GACC.
Over January-May, China's top trade partner was still the ASEAN region, with the bilateral trade value adding up to Yuan 2.59 trillion, rising by 9.9% on year or contributing to 15.4% of the country's total foreign trade value, the GACC statistics found.
The European Union remained China's second-largest trade partner, with whom China's foreign trade recorded Yuan 2.28 trillion, up 3.6% on year or accounting for 13.6% of the country's total. The U.S. came third with the trade value slipping 5.5% on year to Yuan 1.89 trillion, making up 11.3% of the total value, according to the data.
Over the same period, China's trade value with the "Belt and Road Initiative" countries stood at Yuan 5.78 trillion, swelling by 13.2% on year. Of these, the export and import value climbed by 21.6% and 2.7% on year to Yuan 3.44 trillion and Yuan 2.34 trillion respectively.
Privately-owned Chinese enterprises posted a 13.1% on-year gain in their foreign trade value to Yuan 8.86 trillion in the first five months, with their share in the total rising by 3.9 percentage points from the same period in 2022 to 52.8%, the GACC data showed.
Among the major products China shipped abroad over January-May, the value of machinery, electrical products and electronics increased by 9.5% on year to Yuan 5.57 trillion, accounting for 57.9% of the country's export value.
As for China's bulk commodity imports during the past five months, iron ore, crude oil and coal all posted on-year rises in volume, but their average unit prices dropped over the same period, the Customs data showed.
Specifically, China's iron ore import volume grew by 7.7% on year to 481 million tonnes, while its unit price lost 4.5% on year to Yuan 791.5/t. The volume of foreign crude oil imported moved up 6.2% on year to 230 million tonnes, while its unit price shed 11.3% on year to Yuan 4,029.1/t.
And China's imports of coal soared by 89.6% on year to 182 million tonnes, and the unit price slid 14.9% on year to Yuan 877/t, according to GACC.
Source:Mysteel Global
