2023 Foreign Trade Semi-annual Report: "new three" hot sales, exports rose fastest

The first half of 2023 has become a prologue, foreign trade data also came out immediately.

July 13, according to customs disclosure, the first half of China’s trade in goods import and export value of 20.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.1%. Among them, exports 11.46 trillion yuan, up 3.7%; imports 8.64 trillion yuan, down 0.1%. Overall, it carried the pressure of slowing global growth.

Electric passenger cars, lithium batteries, solar cells, represented by the electromechanical "new three" continued to sell. The import and export of these longer industry chain and higher value-added trade grew faster than the whole, and the proportion of total import and export value increased by 1.2 percentage points to 65.5%. This also signifies that China’s ability to develop trade independently has been steadily increasing.

It can be seen that cutting-edge technology and emerging industries have brought more irreplaceable core products, which are significantly improving the competitiveness of "Made in China" in international trade.

01 Withstanding the pressure of global growth slowdown

Internal economic momentum and external conditions of the dual drive, the first half of this year, the scale of China’s foreign trade for the first time exceeded 20 billion yuan mark, the scale of foreign trade imports and exports hit a record high.

General Administration of Customs said that this is in the complex and severe external environment, the global trade and investment slowdown in the background, but also in the epidemic prevention materials and "house economy" products such as the previous "one-time pull factors" in the case of receding, it is not easy.

From the incremental point of view, the first half of China’s trade in goods import and export value increased by more than 400 billion yuan. The General Administration of Customs explains: "figuratively speaking, this is equivalent to our country last year, more than 300 million cars exported the total value of a whole year."

And looking around the world, the WTO expects global trade growth this year is significantly lower than the average level of the past five years. Compared with neighboring economies that have released data, China’s foreign trade data for the first half of the year still shows resilience, with a competitive advantage.

In detail, foreign trade results in a landmark breakthrough largely from the "Belt and Road" policy drive.

Customs data show that in the first half of this year, China’s trade in goods with countries along the "Belt and Road" amounted to 6.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%, accounting for the proportion of the total value of imports and exports rose to 34.3%, higher than the overall growth rate of trade in goods by 7.7 percentage points.

By region, China’s import and export to and from ASEAN, its top trading partner, amounted to 3.08 trillion yuan, up 5.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.3 percent of the total import and export value. Imports and exports of other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was initiated by ASEAN and includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 10 ASEAN countries with a total of 15 members, also grew by 1.5 percent.

Customs data show that in the first half of 2023, the top ten of China’s major trade and export partners were ASEAN, the European Union, the United States, Latin America, Africa, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India and Russia. In terms of year-on-year growth rate, Africa and ASEAN led with 23.7% and 8.6% respectively, and Latin America ranked third with a year-on-year growth rate of 6.0%, and these regions are becoming a new front for foreign trade growth.

It is worth noting that the further development of the private economy has also driven the foreign trade fundamentals, for four consecutive years to become the largest contributor to the total value of foreign trade imports and exports.

In the first half of this year, China’s private enterprises import and export 10.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year, accounting for 52.7% of the total value of imports and exports, an increase of 3.3 percentage points. During the same period, the import and export value of foreign-invested enterprises was 6.16 trillion yuan, and the import and export value of state-owned enterprises was 3.29 trillion yuan, accounting for 30.7% and 16.4% of the total value of imports and exports respectively.

02 Longer industrial chain, higher value-added

In addition to the continuous expansion of the scale of foreign trade, the upward climb of the industrial chain and the optimization of the commodity structure is also a major highlight.

Xu Hongcai, executive director of the China Policy Science Research Association and deputy director of the Economic Policy Research Association, said in an interview with Securities Daily: "In the past, China’s export trade accounted for a relatively large number of commodities, such as textiles and household goods, etc., taking into account the cost factor, most of these industries have been transferred to Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions. China’s export advantage in this area is no longer obvious, timely search for new competitive advantages, optimize the export structure is a necessary path."

For example, in the field of higher value-added electromechanical, electric passenger cars, lithium batteries, solar cells as the representative of the "new three" has become the biggest bright spot in exports. From the previous clothing, home appliances, furniture and other "old three" to today’s electromechanical "new three", the change in export structure highlights China’s foreign trade transformation and upgrading of the new results.

Specifically, from January to June 2023, lithium-ion battery exports amounted to 220.215 billion yuan, an increase of 69.2%.