General Administration of Customs: In the first eight months, China's imports and exports were basically flat, and exports grew month on month for three consecutive months

"Against the background of sluggish global economic and trade growth, China's exports kept growing and its international market share remained stable in the first eight months," Lu Daliang, Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, said on September 7.

(Data picture)

According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs on the same day, in RMB (the same below), China's total import and export value in the first eight months was 27.08 trillion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.1% year on year. In August, China's import and export amounted to 3.59 trillion yuan, up 3.9% month on month. The overall monthly import and export situation was stable. In the first eight months, China's import and export were basically flat.

Experts believe that China's import and export are expected to show a steady and rising trend as the impact of high comparison base, falling commodity prices and other factors gradually weakens, and foreign trade stability and quality improvement policies continue to increase and speed up their effectiveness.

Import and export increased by 3.9% month on month in August

From a single month perspective, data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in August, China's import and export amounted to 3.59 trillion yuan, down 2.5% year on year and up 3.9% month on month. Among them, exports reached 2.04 trillion yuan, down 3.2% year on year and up 1.2% month on month; Imports reached 1.55 trillion yuan, down 1.6% year on year and up 7.6% month on month; The trade surplus was 488 billion yuan, down 8.2% year on year.

"The export scale rebounded to more than 2 trillion yuan in July, and further expanded in August, achieving month on month growth for three consecutive months, showing strong resilience." Lu Daliang said, "The import and export scale of nearly 3.6 trillion yuan in August, an increase of 8.2% over the average of the same period from 2020 to 2022. This scale is the second highest in terms of both monthly data this year and historical data over the same period. China's foreign trade operation is generally stable. "

Shao Yujia, a researcher at the National Economic Research Center of Peking University, believes that the policy of maintaining stability and improving quality in foreign trade continues to increase, which also helps to maintain stability in exports.

On August 25, Xiao Lu, Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the future, special policies such as new energy vehicle trade cooperation will be introduced one after another to fully promote foreign trade in non-ferrous metals and other industries to promote stability and quality improvement. In addition, Chen Chunjiang, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said on August 14 that the Ministry of Commerce would work with relevant departments to effectively optimize the business environment and make every effort to stabilize the basic market of foreign trade and foreign investment.

Weak overseas demand continues to drag down China's exports. Wang Qing, chief macro analyst of Oriental Jincheng, said: "At present, the downward pressure on the global economy is increasing, and external demand is weakening. Data shows that JPMorgan Chase's global manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) was 49.0% in August, although 0.3 percentage points higher than last month, it continues to be in a contraction state since the beginning of the year."

Pang Ming, chief economist of Jones Lang LaSalle in China, believes that with the gradual weakening of the impact of many adverse factors such as high base effect and price decline, the decline of China's import and export is expected to continue to narrow, and foreign trade is expected to show a steady upward trend.

Automobile export scale is expected to expand

Automobile exports continue to maintain a good growth momentum.

According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, in the first eight months, China exported 8.97 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 3.6%, accounting for 58% of the total export value. Among them, the automatic data processing equipment and its parts reached 849.27 billion yuan, down 19%; Mobile phones totaled 513.5 billion yuan, down 7.5%; 442.7 billion yuan for automobiles, up 104.4%.

On September 6, China added a new channel for the export of second-hand cars. On the same day, a China Europe regular train with 100 standard containers and 100 second-hand cars left Shijiazhuang International Land Port Railway Station and headed for Moscow, Russia. This is the first time for Shijiazhuang International Inland Port to ship used cars through the whole China Europe Express. The total value of second-hand cars carried by this train is more than 37 million yuan, all of which are our own brands. They will leave the country from Erenhot Port and are expected to arrive in Moscow in about 15 days.

"The internationalized development of China's automobile industry ushers in a new round of window period." Liu Xiaoguang, a second level inspector of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said recently that China's total automobile exports this year are very likely to exceed 4 million vehicles and march towards 5 million vehicles.

Liu Xiaoguang said that as the world's largest auto producer and an important auto parts production and supply base, China's auto industry chain and supply chain system are relatively complete, supporting the rapid development of the auto industry and trade, and the export scale is expected to expand.

Private enterprises continue to play the role of "stabilizer" in foreign trade

According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, in the first eight months, the import and export of private enterprises reached 14.33 trillion yuan, up 6%, accounting for 52.9% of China's total foreign trade, up 3 percentage points over the same period last year. Among them, the export was 9.74 trillion yuan, up 6.3%, accounting for 63% of the total export value; Imports reached 4.59 trillion yuan, up 5.3%, accounting for 39.5% of the total import value.

Lv Daliang said that in the first eight months, China had 580000 foreign trade operators with import and export performance, of which more than 80% were private enterprises. In August, the export growth of household appliances, mobile phones and automobiles of private enterprises exceeded 20% year on year.

"Private enterprises continue to play the role of a 'stabilizer' of foreign trade." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that the majority of business entities insist on practicing their internal skills. By increasing investment in research and development, focusing on market segmentation, integrating industrial resources, establishing a digital supply chain, etc., they seize the opportunity to seek development and show strong resilience and creativity.

The person in charge also said that the level of foreign trade financial services should be further improved in the future. We will increase export credit support for foreign trade enterprises, especially small and medium-sized micro enterprises. We will expand the scale and coverage of export credit insurance coverage to protect enterprises from market expansion.

Difficult and expensive financing often puzzles and restricts the development of private enterprises. To this end, the People's Bank of China, together with relevant departments, has recently studied the three main financing channels of bonds, credit and equity, adopted a policy combination of "three arrows" to support private enterprises to broaden financing channels and solve the problem of "water shortage" of private enterprises.

"Doing a good job of financial services for private enterprises will help further stimulate the resilience and vitality of private enterprises, and provide strong support for building a new development pattern and achieving high-quality development," said Pan Gongsheng, secretary and president of the Party Committee of the People's Bank of China, and secretary and director of the Party Leadership Group of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

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