At the press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office on October 14, Wang Jun, Spokesperson and Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs, summarized the overall performance of China’s foreign trade in the first three quarters with four adjectives: “fast, innovative, optimized and effective”. He announced that China’s goods import and export volume stood at 39.94 trillion yuan, rising by 18.8% year-on-year. Exports reached 23.2 trillion yuan with a growth rate of 16.4%, while imports were 16.74 trillion yuan, up 22.3%.
Since the start of this year, the construction of a powerful trading nation and high-quality development of foreign trade have kept advancing, bringing simultaneous expansion in scale and improvement in quality for imports and exports. According to Wang Jun, China’s foreign trade maintained rapid expansion, registering growth rates of 15.3%, 18.3% and 22.3% in Q1, Q2 and Q3 respectively. On a monthly basis, growth stayed in double digits for six consecutive months. In particular, imports and exports in September hit 5.16 trillion yuan, crossing the 5-trillion-yuan threshold for the first time with a year-on-year rise of 27.5%, showing an upward trend in both quarterly and monthly growth rates.
In terms of growth speed, the foreign trade growth rate for the first three quarters marked the best level for the same period in nearly five years, with both quarterly and monthly indicators climbing. As for driving forces, imports and exports of industrial robots, electronic components, computer parts, electrical equipment and other goods exceeded 10 trillion yuan, up 58.9% year-on-year, contributing 11.3 percentage points to the overall foreign trade growth. Meanwhile, the brand influence of “Made in China” keeps expanding. Exports of independent brands grew by 26.7%, accounting for 24.8% of total exports, 2 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
Trade structure has been continuously improved, and cross-border logistics channels have been further adjusted. The share of road imports and exports rose by 3.4 percentage points in the first three quarters. The expanding trade volume of high-tech products, high value-added commodities and fresh agricultural and food products drove air-borne imports and exports up by 37.2%. In terms of opening-up outcomes, China achieved two-way import and export growth with more than 120 countries and regions. Economic and trade ties with Belt and Road partner countries have deepened continuously; trade with these countries reached 20.37 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.1%. Trade with other APEC economies amounted to 24.07 trillion yuan, growing by 23.9% year-on-year.
Wang Jun also noted that numerous unpredictable factors persist in the international environment. Nevertheless, the global economy still maintains resilience. Supported by China’s super-large domestic market and complete industrial system, together with the coordinated effects of existing and new policies, foreign trade still possesses solid foundations and favorable conditions for stable growth in the next stage.
Imports delivered particularly strong results. The import growth rate outpaced export growth by 5.9 percentage points in the first three quarters, and China recorded faster import growth than export growth with over 110 countries and regions. Since March, import growth has remained above 20% for seven consecutive months, and import volume in September exceeded 2 trillion yuan for the first time.
Wang Jun analyzed that the rapid expansion of imports stems from stable domestic economic operation and the continuous release of potential from the super-large market. On one hand, advanced manufacturing industries keep growing, generating strong demand for key components and intermediate goods. Imports of storage components rose 150%, integrated circuits increased 56.6%, and aircraft parts climbed 17.6% in the first three quarters. On the other hand, residents’ consumption demand has shifted from pursuing quantity to quality, boosting demand for premium overseas goods. Imports of fresh durian from Malaysia surged 330%, Italian olive oil rose 28.6%, and French perfumes increased 28.5%. In addition, the recovery of domestic production activities provided steady support for imports of upstream raw materials. Imports of iron, aluminum, nickel and other metal ores exceeded 1.2 billion tons, and oil and gas imports topped 400 million tons.
Wang Jun stated that the expansion of import volume objectively reflects domestic production and consumption demand, and demonstrates tangible achievements of China’s steady independent and unilateral opening-up. Starting from May 1 this year, China fully implemented zero-tariff treatment for 53 African diplomatic countries, raising the total number of zero-tariff beneficiary countries to 63. China’s imports from these countries reached 867.53 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 15.3% year-on-year.
Foreign-invested enterprises are participants and beneficiaries of “China Opportunity 2.0”. Their total import and export volume reached 11.69 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, rising 19% year-on-year and hitting an all-time high for the period. Wang Jun commented that China is not only the well-known “world factory”, but also a “world market”, an open and globally shared market.
The total export of goods stood at 23.2 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%. Exports in Q3 broke 8 trillion yuan for the first time with a growth rate of 22%. Wang Jun explained that the sound export growth benefits from China’s complete industrial chain system and growing advanced manufacturing sectors, which can respond quickly, accurately and efficiently to global production and consumption demands.
On the production side, China’s ship exports exceeded 350 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 24.6% year-on-year. Exports of 300,000 DWT oil tankers, large LPG carriers and LNG carriers multiplied. The industrial robot industry accelerated digital and intelligent transformation, with exports nearing 10 billion yuan and a growth rate of 16.9%, helping trade partners upgrade manufacturing industries. On the consumption side, digital camera exports performed well, rising 40.5% year-on-year.
The global investment boom in artificial intelligence continues, driving up demand for computing power and power equipment. For computing-related products, exports of integrated circuits grew 99.1%, computer parts jumped 210%, and storage products such as solid-state hard drives rose 130%. China steadily supplies intermediate products for the global computing power industrial chain. In the power equipment sector, exports of photovoltaic products and wind turbine components rose 10.3% and 22.4% respectively, filling the supply gap of clean energy worldwide. Exports of wires, cables and transformers increased by 28.1% and 22.5%, while various storage batteries grew 34.8%, selling to more than 200 countries and regions.
Wang Jun mentioned that from high-speed optical communication modules and AI computing server cabinets to power transmission lines and UHV converter transformers; from portable power banks and industrial & commercial energy storage equipment to small standalone batteries and containerized integrated energy storage systems, Chinese enterprises keep delivering Chinese products, experience and solutions for global computing infrastructure construction, stable grid operation and secure power supply.