Data Watch on China’s Foreign Trade and Investment in the First Seven Months of 2012

China’s foreign trade in the first seven months of 2012

According to statistics of the Customs， China’s exports and imports in the first seven months of 2012 reached $2.16837 trillion， up by 7.1% over the same period of last year. Specifically， exports stood at $1.13124 trillion， up by 7.8% year on year; imports $1.03713 trillion， up by 6.4%. The seven months saw a trade surplus of $94.11 billion.

Significant increase in trade with emerging markets. From January to July of the year， China’s trade with South Africa reported 40.9% increase over the same period of last year， 17.7% increase with Russia， 10.3% increase with Brazil， 9% increase with the ASEAN， 10.5% increase with the United States， 0.9% decrease with Europe and 0.2% decrease with Japan.

Continuing increase in exports of Central and Western China. During the first seven months of 2012， the exports of Western， Central and Eastern China increased by 55.0%， 34.3% and 4.4% respectively. The exports in Chongqing Province doubled this year. The exports in Henan， Sichuan and Jiangxi Provinces rose by 75.5%， 56.9% and 51.3% respectively. The increasing rate of exports was 6.2% in Guangdong， 2.7% in Jiangsu， 3.4% in Zhejiang and 0.6% in Shanghai， all of which were lower than the national increasing rate at the same period.

Steady increase rate of exports and imports under the general trade. From January to July of this year， China’s general trade value was $1.14962 trillion， up by 7.7% year on year， in which exports value increased by 8.7% to $549.82 billion， while imports value increased by 6.9% to $599.8 billion. The total value of processing trade was $753.21 billion， up by 3.1%， in which the exports value rose by 4.4% to $485.67 billion， while the imports value only increased 0.6% to $267.54 billion.

Significant increase in exports of mechanical， electrical and light industrial products. In the first seven months of the year， China exported $649.1 billion worth of mechanical and electrical products， 9.1% higher than that of last year， 1.3 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the nation’s total exports， which accounted for 57.4% of the total export value. In specific， the exports of electric appliances and electronic products increased 6.1% to $258.5 billion， and that of mechanical equipments was 9.5% to an amount of $214.12 billion. The total exports value of light industrial products including shoes， plastics， furniture， luggage and toys was $88.77 billion， 18.9% increase over the same period of last year.

Increase in quantity and decrease in price of mineral resources products imports. During the last seven months， the iron ore imports increased 9.1% to an amount of 0.42 billion tonnes， while the price was $138.5 per tonne， down by 15.2%. The soybean imports increased 20.1% to an amount of 34.92 million tonnes， while the price was $560.2 per tonne， down by 2.7%. The imports of unwrought aluminum and semi-finished aluminum products increased 34% to an amount of 0.711 million tonnes， while the price was $3978.2 per tonne， down by 18.9%.

Utilization of foreign investment

In the first seven months of 2012， China approved the establishment of 13，677 new foreign-invested enterprises in non-financial fields， a decline of 12.3% year on year. China utilized$66.67 billion worth of foreign capital， a decline of 3.6% from the same period of last year. In July alone， the number of newly-set-up foreign-invested enterprises was 1，972， down by 7.8%， and the sum of foreign capital utilization was$7.58 billion， down by 8.7%. (Excluding the data of banking， securities or insurance industries.)

Drop in sectors including manufacturing and service industries. From January to July， the sectors of agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， and fisheries made an actual use of $990 million in foreign investment， a decrease of 14.4% year on year and accounting for 1.5% of the country’s total utilization of foreign capital. The manufacturing industry made an actual use of $30.13 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 6.4% over the same period of last year and accounting for 45.2% of the national total， in which the manufacturing of communications equipments had a rapid increase rate of 73.6%. The service industry made an actual use of $30.79 billion， a decline of 3.2% year on year and accounting for 46.2% of the nation’s total utilization of foreign capital. Specifically， foreign investment in real estate had been regulated effectively， which resulted in a significant decline of 9.3% of the foreign capital utilization. Sectors like financial industry， hydroelectric generation and education also had relatively higher increasing rates.

The investment from the US changed from decrease to increase. During the past seven months， the amounts of foreign investment from the US was $1.96 billion， up by 1.0%. The amount of paid-in capital in China from ten Asia nations and regions (Hong Kong， Macau， Taiwan， Japan， the Philippines， Thailand， Malaysia， Singapore， Indonesia， and South Korea) reached$57.3 billion， down by 3.8%. To be specific， there was $41.9 billion from Hong Kong， down by 7.5%; $4.73 billion from Japan， up by 19.1%; $4.43 billion from Singapore， up by 25%. The paid-in capital from the EU was $3.97 billion， down by 2.7%， while that of German was $0.96 billion， an increase of 27.12%.

Significant increase in paid- in foreign capital to Central China. From January to July， the central regions made an actual use of $5.44 billion， an increase of 8.7%， and accounting for 8.2% of the national total. The eastern regions made an actual use of $56.98 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 3.5% year on year and accounting for 85.5% of the national total. The western regions made an actual use of $4.25 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 17.6% year on year and accounting for 6.4% of the national total.

Overseas investment and economic cooperation

China’s outbound FDI. In the past seven months， China’s domestic investors invested directly in 2，407 overseas corporations in 117 nations and regions， with a total of non-financial outbound FDI of $42.22 billion， an increase of 52.8% year on year.

The investment in Hong Kong， ASEAN and the United States reported a double-digit growth， which were 67.7%， 36% and 29.6% respectively. The investment in the EU was $1.032 billion， an increase of 1.2% over the same period of last year; the investment in Russia increased 0.2% to $0.204 billion; the investment in Australia and Japan dropped 43% and 25.7% respectively.

Local FDI had an increase of 26.6% year on year to $12.82 billion， accounting for 30.4% of the total FDI. Provinces like Guangdong， Shandong， Hunan， Gansu and Jiangsu ranked on the top of the local investment list.

By the end of July， China had made $364.3 billion worth of FDI on an accumulative basis.

Overseas-contracted projects. In the past seven months of this year， China’s overseas-contracted projects reported a turnover of $58.83 billion， an increase of 14.5% year on year. July reported a turnover of $8.48 billion， down by 4.3% from the same period of last year. $75.05 billion worth of new contracts were signed from January to July， down by 0.9 % year on year. In July alone， $8.29 billion worth of new contracts were signed， down by 18.0%.

By the end of July， China had signed a total of $916.7 billion worth of agreements on contracting overseas projects， and realized $597.8 billion in turnover.

Foreign labor service cooperation. In the first seven months of 2012， the number of all kinds of labor sent abroad was 251，000， an increase of 9，000 from the same period of last year. 130，000 of them were working on overseas contracted projects， and 121，000 of them were for labor cooperation. By the end of July， there were a total of 852，000 Chinese working abroad， 65，000 more than the same period of last year.