China’s foreign trade sees stable and improved performance in first quarter of 2021

Photo taken on April 13, 2021, shows containers being loaded onto and unloaded from vessels at the container terminal of the Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang city, east China’s Jiangsu province. (People’s Daily Online/Geng Yuhe)  

China’s foreign trade got off to a good start at the beginning of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, with the total volume of imports and exports of goods reaching 8.47 trillion yuan (about $1.31 trillion) in the first quarter of 2021, up 29.2 percent year on year, according to official data.

In the first three months this year, China’s exports of goods rose 38.7 percent from the same period last year to 4.61 trillion yuan, and its imports of goods expanded 19.3 percent year on year to 3.86 trillion yuan, suggested data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The scale of China’s foreign trade in the first quarter not only far exceeded that of the same period last year, but showed growth rates of 25.3 percent and 20.5 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018 and 2019, respectively, as the official data indicated.

“In the first quarter, China’s foreign trade achieved a great increase unseen for many years, showing strong resilience and vigorous vitality,” said Liang Ming, head of foreign trade research institute under the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

China has constantly expanded imports of high-quality goods to meet the huge domestic demand. In the middle of last year, China’s Ministry of Finance, the GAC, and the State Taxation Administration jointly released a notice to raise the annual offshore duty-free shopping quota for outbound tourists in south China’s Hainan province in a bid to meet the needs of consumption upgrading.

During this year’s Spring Festival holiday that lasted from Feb. 11 to 17, the combined sales volume of offshore duty-free shops in Hainan exceeded 1.5 billion yuan, doubling that achieved during the Spring Festival holiday in 2019.

The continuous and stable economic recovery in China has given a boost to the import of new and high-tech products and basic materials including energy products. Customs data showed that the country imported 155.27 billion units of integrated circuits in the first quarter this year, up 33.6 percent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s crude oil and copper imports grew by 9.5 percent and 11.7 percent year on year to 139 million tons and nearly 1.44 million tons, respectively.

While promoting stable growth in the volume of foreign trade, China has tried to improve the value-added of exports by optimizing the structure of export goods.

A vast number of foreign trade firms have made great efforts to bring into better play their core competitive advantages in such aspects as technology, brand, and service, improve the quality and structure of export products, and foster new strengths in export.

In the first three months of 2021, China exported 2.78 trillion yuan worth of mechanical and electrical products, which marked a growth rate of 43 percent and accounted for 60.3 percent of the country’s total export volume in the period.

During the period, the country saw its exports of automatic data processing equipment and its parts and accessories, mobile phones, and automobiles (including chassis) increase by 54.5 percent, 38.5 percent, and 98.9 percent, respectively.

“This is our newest computer numerical control (CNC) precision machining center. You put raw materials in it and get finished products. The precision of its holes and screws can reach one hundredth the size of a human hair,” said Hu Lijun, general manager of a foreign trade company based in Cixi, east China’s Zhejiang province.

According to Hu, the production lines of his company have never stopped running since the beginning of this year, and the orders the company has received are scheduled for April 2023.

Hu’s company mainly produces braking systems of high-end bicycles. Its products have been sold to Europe and South America. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, some countries encourage citizens to shift from their previous transportation means to bikes, leading to a significant surge in the market demand for bikes. Although Hu’s company is running at full capacity, it still can’t meet the huge demand of oversea markets.

“The reason why we can seize the great opportunity for foreign trade now is that we have been continuously increasing financial input in the research and development of products and technological transformation,” Hu explained.