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

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

According to statistics of the Customs， China’s exports and imports in the first eight months of 2012 reached$2.49762 trillion， up by 6.2% over the same period of last year. Specifically， exports stood at $1.30911 trillion， up by 7.1% year on year; imports $1.18851 trillion， up by 5.1%. The eight months saw a trade surplus of $120.6 billion， increasing by 31.8%. Five obvious features are as follows:

Steady increase in trade with emerging markets.

From January to August of the year， China’s trade with ASEAN reported 7.7% increase over the same period of last year， 14.9% increase with Russia， 6.3% increase with Brazil， and 9.6% increase with the United States. While the trade with the EU and Japan decreases 1.9% and 1.4% respectively.

Continuing increase in exports of Central and Western China.

During the first eight months of 2012， the exports in Chongqing Province are 1.7 times more than the same period of last year. The exports in Henan， Sichuan and Jiangxi Provinces rose by 63.4%， 47.8% and 43.3% respectively， and that of Guangdong Province was 5.8%. The increasing rates of Jiangsu， Zhejiang， Fujian and Beijing were 2.2%， 2.5%， 6.3% and 2.9% respectively， which were all lower than the national increasing rate in the same period.

Steady increase of the expansion rate of exports and imports under the general trade.

From January to August of this year， China’s general trade value was$1.32075 trillion， up by 6.2% year on year， in which exports value increased by 7.7% to $638.17 billion， while imports value increased by 4.9% to $682.58 billion. The total value of processing trade was $865.71 billion， up by 2.3%， in which the exports value rose by 3.5% to$556.64 billion， while the imports value increased 0.4% to $309.07 billion.

Steady increase in exports of mechanical and electrical products.

In the first eight months of the year， China exported $748.84 billion worth of mechanical and electrical products， 8.3% higher than that of last year， 1.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the nation’s total exports in the same period. In specific， the exports of electric appliances and electronic products increased 6.1% to$299.95 billion， and that of mechanical equipments was 7.2% to an amount of$243.89 billion. The total exports value of labor-intensive products including textile， apparel， shoes， luggage， plastics， furniture and toys only increased by 5.9%.

Increase in quantity and decrease in price of mineral resources importing products.

During the last eight months， the iron ore imports increased by 8.7% with an amount of 0.49 billion tonnes， while the import price was down by 16.6%. The soybean imports increased by 17.4% with an amount of 39.34 million tonnes， however， the import price was down by 1.4%. The imports of primary plastics increased by 2.3% to a total of 15.42 million tonnes， and the import price was down by 5.5%. In addition， the total value of imports of mechanical and electrical products reached to $501.03 billion， up by 1.7%， in which the amount of imported cars was 819，000， up by 29.1%.

Utilization of foreign investment

In the first eight months of 2012， China approved the establishment of 15，777 new foreign-invested enterprises in non-financial fields， a decline of 12.38% year on year. China utilized$74.994 billion worth of foreign capital， a decline of 3.40% from the same period of last year. In August alone， the number of newly-set-up foreign-invested enterprises was 2，100， down by 12.72%， and the sum of foreign capital utilization was $8.326 billion， down by 1.43%. Till the end of August， the cumulative number of newly-set-up foreign-invested enterprises reached to 754，130， and the sum of foreign capital utilization was $1242.183 billion. The features are as follows:

Increase of foreign capital utilization in service industries excluding the real estate.

From January to August， the manufacturing industry made an actual use of $33.738 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 6.66% over the same period of last year and accounting for 44.98% of the national total. The service industry made an actual use of $35.0 billion， a decline of 1.85% year on year and accounting for 46.67% of the nation’s total utilization of foreign capital. Specifically， foreign investment in real estate was $15.266 billion， down by 9.89%， while the rest of service industries saw an increase of 5.31%. Stimulated by the domestic demands and consumption， the retail industry had a relatively higher increasing rate of 9.76%. The sectors of agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， and fisheries made an actual use of$1093 million in foreign investment， a decrease of 14.57% year on year and accounting for 1.5% of the country’s total utilization of foreign capital.

Continuing significant increase in paid-in foreign capital to central China.

From January to August， the central regions made an actual use of$6.254 billion， an increase of 12.3%， and accounting for 8.34% of the national total. The eastern regions made an actual use of $63.634 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 4.1% year on year and accounting for 84.85% of the national total. The western regions made an actual use of $5.106 billion in foreign investment， a decline of 11.0% year on year and accounting for 6.81% of the national total.

Continuing increase in investment from several European countries.

During the past eight months， the paid-in capital from 27 countries in EU dropped by 4.1%， in which that of German， Holland and France increased by 27.27%， 3.30% and 14.78% respectively. The amount of foreign investment from the US decreased 2.85% during the past eight months. 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) was down by 5%， in which the investment from Hong Kong dropped by 8.52%. Though the increasing rate of investment from Japan was 16.2%， it was still far lower than 50% in 2011. (The data include the foreign investment in China via free ports.)

Overseas investment and economic cooperation

China’s outbound FDI.

In the past eight months， China’s domestic investors invested directly in 2，708 overseas corporations in 119 nations and regions， with a total of nonfinancial outbound FDI of $47.68 billion， an increase of 39.4% year on year.

The investment in Hong Kong， ASEAN， the United States and Russia reached to a double-digit growth， which were 48.2%， 40.5%， 18.2% and 15.8% respectively. The investment in EU was$1.18 billion， down by 2.5% over the same period of last year; the investment in Australia and Japan dropped 43% and 11.1% respectively.

Overseas-contracted projects.

In the past eight months of this year， China’s overseas-contracted projects reported a turnover of $68.46 billion， an increase of 16.2% year on year.$83.84 billion worth of new contracts were signed from January to August， down by 0.4% year on year. In August alone， $9.63 billion turnover was achieved， up by 13.56%.

By the end of August， China had signed a total of $925.5 billion worth of agreements on contracting overseas projects， and realized $607.5 billion in turnover.

Foreign labor service cooperation.

In the first eight months of 2012， the number of all kinds of labor sent abroad was 282，000， an increase of 6，000 from the same period of last year. 144，000 of them were working on overseas contracted projects， and 138，000 of them were for labor cooperation. At the end of August， there were a total of 859，000 Chinese working abroad， 70，000 more than the same period of last year.