On May 8, General Administration of Customs issued statistics that China’s total imports and exports reached 1.95 trillion yuan in April, slightly decreasing 0.3% year on year, consisting of exports of 1.13 trillion yuan, up 4.1%, imports of 827.5 billion yuan, down 5.7%, and the favorable balance of trade hit 298 billion yuan, expanding 45.8%, year on year.

 

Throughout the first four months this year, China had total imports and exports of 7.17 trillion yuan, down 4.4% year on year, consisting of exports of 4.14 trillion yuan, down 2.1%, imports of 3.03 trillion yuan, down 7.5%, and the favorable balance of trade of 1.11 trillion yuan, expanding 16.5%, year on year.

 

Throughout the first four months this year, Europe Union(EU) was China’s greatest trade partner. China-EU’s total trade value reached 1.1 trillion yuan, slightly up 0.3% year on year, accounting for 15.3% of China’s total foreign trade. During this period, the foreign trade volume of China-US was 998.3 billion yuan, down 4.8%; of China-ASEAN was 883.53 billion yuan, down 3.1%; and of China-Japan was 542.93 billion yuan, down 2%, year on year.

 

Statistics indicate that, during the first four months, the total imports and exports of private enterprises reached 2.78 trillion yuan, up 7% year on year, accounting for 38.8% of China’s total foreign trade, 4.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.

The imports of main bulk goods including iron ore sand, crude oil and cooper increased, and the imports of coal, product oil and steel products decreased. Prices of major imported goods saw a decline in general.

 

In the first four months, China imported iron ore sand of 325 million tons, up 6.1% year on year, at an average price of 303.9 yuan/ton, declining 24.9%; crude oil of 124 million tons, up 11.8% year on year, at an average price of 1652.5 yuan/ton, declining 35.3%; and steel products of 4.23million tons, down 4.6% year on year, at an average price of 6483.2 yuan/ton, declining 10.6%.

 

Source: Translated by Invest Guangzhou, May 9, 2016