Guangdong’s foreign trade volume hits a record high in the first half of the year

Since the beginning of this year, Guangdong’s foreign trade has been recovering and improving. According to statistics from the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, in the first half of this year, Guangdong’s foreign trade imports and exports reached 4.37 trillion yuan, a record high in the same period in history, an increase of 13.8% over the same period last year (the same below), 7.7 percentage points higher than the national average, accounting for 20.6% of the national total. Among them, exports were 2.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.1%; imports were 1.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.1%.

Specifically, Guangdong’s major export commodities grew rapidly. In the first half of the year, Guangdong’s exports of mechanical and electrical products grew by 9.9%, accounting for 64.4% of Guangdong’s total exports. Among them, automatic data processing equipment and its parts, household appliances, and integrated circuits grew by 14.6%, 16.7%, and 26.3% respectively; ships, electric manned vehicles, and containers grew rapidly, growing by 70.7%, 78.3%, and 104% respectively. During the same period, exports of labor-intensive products grew by 2.4%, accounting for 14.1%; exports of steel products were 89.86 billion yuan, an increase of 4.4 times.

The structure of trade modes continued to be optimized. In the first half of the year, Guangdong’s general trade imports and exports amounted to 2.61 trillion yuan, up 16.9%, accounting for 59.6% of Guangdong’s total imports and exports, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the same period last year. Processing trade imports and exports amounted to 907.01 billion yuan, up 2.2%, accounting for 20.8%; bonded logistics imports and exports amounted to 812.52 billion yuan, up 25.1%, accounting for 18.6%.

The vitality of trade entities continues to increase. In the first half of the year, Guangdong’s private enterprises’ imports and exports amounted to 2.8 trillion yuan, up 21.3%, 7.5 percentage points faster than Guangdong’s overall growth rate, accounting for 64% of Guangdong’s total imports and exports. During the same period, foreign-invested enterprises’ imports and exports amounted to 1.34 trillion yuan, up 2.1%, accounting for 30.7%; state-owned enterprises’ imports and exports amounted to 220.95 billion yuan, up 2.2%, accounting for 5.1%.

The growth momentum with major trading partners is good. In the first half of the year, Guangdong’s top five trading partners were ASEAN, Hong Kong, China, the United States, the European Union and Taiwan, China, with imports and exports increasing by 12.3%, 16.9%, 10.6%, 7.1% and 17.2% respectively. During the same period, imports and exports to countries participating in the construction of the “Belt and Road” reached 1.64 trillion yuan, an increase of 12%; imports and exports to other RCEP member countries reached 1.24 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.5%.

Imports of electromechanical products and energy products maintained double-digit growth. In the first half of the year, Guangdong’s imports of electromechanical products increased by 23.6%, accounting for 64.2% of Guangdong’s total imports. Among them, imports of integrated circuits amounted to 526.98 billion yuan, an increase of 21.3%; automatic data processing equipment and its parts amounted to 105.58 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9%; and semiconductor manufacturing equipment amounted to 29.5 billion yuan, an increase of 2.4 times. During the same period, imports of three types of energy products, including coal, crude oil, and natural gas, totaled 49.602 million tons, an increase of 38.9%, with a value of 68.88 billion yuan, an increase of 17.6%.

Looking forward to the second half of the year, the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs pointed out that Guangdong’s foreign trade will still face many unstable and uncertain factors, but supported by favorable factors such as the continued recovery of external demand, the continuous release of dividends from various policies to stabilize foreign trade, and the increase in corporate orders, it is expected that the overall development momentum will continue to be good.