Data Watch: China’s Foreign Trade & Investment in the First Quarter of 2012

China’s foreign trade in the first quarter of 2012

According to statistics of the Customs， China’s exports and imports in the first quarter of 2012 reached $859.37 billion， up by 7.3% over the same period of last year. Specifically， exports stood at $430.02 billion， up by 7.6% year on year; imports $429.35 billion， up by 6.9%. The three months saw a trade surplus of$670 million， compared with a deficit of $2.22 billion at the same period of last year.

Stronger growth in exports under the general trade; slight decrease in the growth rate of imports under the processing trade. In the first quarter of the year， China’s general trade value jumped by 8.1% year on year to$452.67 billion. Specifically， exports reached$200.5 billion， an increase of 5.6% year on year， 2.3 percentage points higher the increase rate in January and February; imports increased by 8.2% to $252.17 billion. The nation’s pro- cessing trade value jumped by 4.4% year on year to reach $304.73 billion. Specifically， exports increased by 6.3% to $196.07 billion， while imports increased by 1.2% to $108.66 billion， compared with an increase rate of 2.3% in the first two months of the year.

Significant increase in trade with emerging markets; modest increase in trade with Europe， the United States and Japan. In the first quarter of the year， China’s bilateral trade with Russia and Brazil reported 33% and 11.5% increases over the same period of last year. The nation’s trade with Europe jumped by 4.7%; that with the United States up by 9.2%; and that with the ASEAN up by 9.1%. China’s trade with Japan fell by 1.6%. China’s exports to the United States and Japan increased by 12.8% and 10.3% respectively. The nation saw big increases in exports to emerging markets， 14.6% with Russia and 19.2% with Brazil for instance. Due to the heavily shrinking market need caused by the lasting debt crisis， China’s exports to the EU fell by 1.8%.

Significant increase in exports of central and western China; steady increase in exports of eastern China. Exports of Central and Western China jumped by 23.7% and 30.1% respectively， compared with the 5.6% increase in Eastern China. Exports of Henan， Guangxi， Sichuan， Hunan， Guangdong， Jiangsu， Shanghai and Zhejiang increased by 1.4 times， 41.2%， 31.9%， 18.7%， 0.7%， 2.8%， 9.4% and 2.5% respectively.

Steady increase in exports of mechanical and electrical products; fall of prices of some of the bulk commodity imports. In the first quarter of the year， China exported $252.99 billion worth of mechanical and electrical products， 9.1% higher than that of last year， 1.5 percentage points higher than the increase rate of the nation’s total exports last year. The country imported 190 million tons of iron ore， an increase of 6% year on year. The average price of the iron ore imports were $137.1 per ton， a drop of 13.4% from the same period of last year. The country imported 8.44 million tons of soy beans， an increase of 13.2% year on year at an average price of $525.7 per ton， a fall of 8.2%.

Private enterprises contributed over half of China’s exports; increase rate of exports by foreign-funded enterprises is lower than the average level. Private enterprises recorded 12.6% increase in exports， contributing 50.8% of China’s total imports. Their imports jumped by 13.8% to reach $99.85 billion. Foreign-funded enterprises saw 6.9% increase in exports， 0.7 percentage points lower than the average level， and 2.4% increase in imports， 4.5 percentage points lower than the average level.

Utilization of foreign investment

In the first quarter of 2012， China approved the establishment of 5，379 new foreign-invested enterprises， a decline of 9.4% year on year. The nation utilized $29.48 billion worth of foreign capital， a decline of 2.8% from the same period of last year. In March alone， China approved the establishment of 2，374 new foreign-invested enterprises， down by 6.5% year on year. The nation utilized $11.757 billion worth of foreign capital， a decline of 6.1% from the same period of last year.

Significant increase in the utilization of foreign capital by such sectors as agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， and fisheries; more foreign capital went to the service sector than the manufacturing sector. In the first quarter of the year， the sectors of agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， and fisheries made an actual use of $540 million in foreign investment， an increase of 26.02% year on year and accounting for 1.83% of the country’s total utilization of foreign capital. The manufacturing industry made an actual use of $13.09 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 4.69% over the same period of last year and accounting for 44.4% of the national total. The service industry made an actual use of $14.032 billion， a decline of 2.5% year on year and accounting for 47.6% of the nation’s total utilization of foreign capital.

Decline in investment in China from the EU; increase in investment from the United States after continuant decrease. Paid-in capital from the 27 European Union nations fell by 31.2% to $1.414 billion. Investment from the United States rose by 10.1% to reach $893 million. Investment from Japan to China increased by 13.2%

Significant increase in paid-in foreign capital to central China. In the first quarter of the year， the eastern regions made an actual use of $25.004 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 3.66% year on year and accounting for 84.82% of the national total. The central regions made an actual use of $2.479 billion， an increase of 20.72% and accounting for 8.41% of the national total. The western regions made an actual use of $1.996 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 14.38% year on year and accounting for 6.77% of the national total.

Overseas investment and economic cooperation

China’s outbound FDI In the first quarter of 2012， China’s domestic investors invested directly in 1，096 overseas corporations in 109 nations and regions， with a total of non-financial outbound FDI of $16.55 billion， an increase of 94.5% year on year.$6.2 billion worth of direct investment was made in the form of merger， making up for 37.5% of the total FDI. By the end of March， China had made$338.5 billion worth of FDI on an accumulative basis.

Overseas-contracted projects In the first quarter of the year， China’s overseas-contracted projects reported a turnover of $20.88 billion， an increase of 23% year on year. March reported a turnover of$10.22 billion， up by 43.9% from the same period of last year. $14.43 billion worth of new contracts were signed in March， up by 6.7% year on year， ending the downward trend in the first two month of this year.

Foreign labor service cooperation In the first quarter of 2012， the number of all kinds of labor sent abroad was 91，000， a drop of 2，000 from the same with last year. 47，000 of them are working on overseas contracted projects， and 44，000 of them are for labor cooperation. At the end of March， there were a total of 809，000 Chinese working abroad， 40，000 more than the same period of last year.

(Source: Press conference of the Ministry of Commerce of China on April 17， 2012)