In the first quarter of 2024, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 3.3% year-on-year to $477.72 billion

● The growth rate of imports and exports is higher than that of total commodities

According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter of 2024, the import and export value of China's mechanical and electrical products increased by 4.1% year-on-year to 695.23 billion US dollars. Among them, the export of US $477.72 billion, an increase of 3.3%, 1.8 percentage points higher than the total export of goods; Imports reached US $217.51 billion, up by 6.0% year on year, 4.5 percentage points higher than the growth of total commodity imports; The trade surplus increased by US $2.79 billion year-on-year to US $26021 billion, higher than the overall merchandise surplus of US $76.55 billion.

Among them, mainly due to the high base of the same period last year, exports in March fell by 5.2% year-on-year to $165.83 billion; Driven by the recovery in demand for integrated circuits and computer products, mechanical and electrical imports rose 3.6% year on year to $80.55 billion in the month.

● Exports of key industries increased year-on-year

In the first quarter, exports of key electromechanical industries such as computers, integrated circuits, automobiles and spare parts, household appliances, general machinery and equipment, lighting products, ships, audio and video equipment and their parts, and LCD flat panel display modules generally increased year-on-year.

Among them, household appliances, vehicles, ships and other exports maintained a high boom, the export volume increased for many consecutive months, and the export volume of mechanical and electrical machinery increased by 1.1 percentage points in the first quarter. Brands to accelerate the release of inventory and replacement demand to promote the recovery of computer products exports, exports for three consecutive months of year-on-year growth, the first quarter of cumulative export growth of 4.8%; The shipment of high unit price mobile phones was less than expected and the transfer of orders caused the "volume increase and volume decrease" of mobile phone exports, with the export volume increasing by 6.3% and the export value decreasing by 13.0%.

● Integrated circuit imports pick up

In the first quarter, imports of integrated circuits, computer products, auto parts, and LCD flat panel display modules increased year-on-year. Among them, the downstream warming of integrated circuit imports increased by 12.7% and 10.3%, respectively. According to statistics from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources of South Korea, to March, South Korea's semiconductor exports have increased for five consecutive months year-on-year, and the global electronic information market has continued to recover.

Exports of goods rose 3.1 per cent in March from a year earlier. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea, in March 2024, South Korea's exports of goods increased by 3.1% year-on-year to 56.6 billion US dollars, the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year growth, and the value of goods imports fell by 12.3% to 52.3 billion US dollars. Among them, semiconductor exports increased 35.7% year-on-year to US $11.7 billion, maintaining the growth momentum for the fifth consecutive month; Exports of displays and computers increased by 16.2% and 24.5%, respectively, the eighth and third consecutive months of year-on-year growth; Exports of mobile communications equipment rose 5.5 per cent. Ship exports increased by 102.1% year-on-year, the eighth consecutive month of positive growth; Car exports fell 5 per cent year on year. By destination, exports to major export markets such as the United States (11.6 percent), Japan (12.1 percent), the European Union (6.7 percent), ASEAN (1.3 percent), and China (0.4 percent) all increased year-on-year.

In the first quarter, Vietnam's exports of goods increased by 16.8% year-on-year. According to Vietnam Customs statistics, in the first quarter of 2024, Vietnam's exports of goods increased by 16.8% year-on-year to $92.88 billion, of which exports of computers and parts increased by 35.7% year-on-year to $16.33 billion, and exports of communication equipment and parts increased by 5.9% year-on-year to $14.22 billion.

Exports of mechanical and electrical products fell 1.6 per cent in February from a year earlier. Japan's Ministry of Finance statistics, in February 2024, Japan's exports of mechanical and electrical products fell 1.6% year-on-year to $34.66 billion, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, integrated circuits, lithium batteries and other exports fell year-on-year, exports of mechanical and electrical products to the United States increased 9.7% year-on-year, exports to China fell 2.4%.

Imports of mechanical and electrical products in the United States rose 9.3 percent in February from a year earlier. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce, in February 2024, the import of mechanical and electrical products in the United States increased by 9.3% year-on-year to $128.57 billion, of which the import of complete automobiles, computers, lithium batteries, medical appliances and other imports increased year-on-year, and the import of mechanical and electrical products from Mexico and China increased by 15.6% and 2.6% respectively. Among them, China's mechanical and electrical imports increased for the first time in nearly 17 months, and the proportion of imports of 16.6% was 6.2 percentage points lower than that of Mexico.

German exports of mechanical and electrical products rose 7 per cent in January from a year earlier. According to the German Federal Statistics Office, in January 2024, Germany's exports of mechanical and electrical products were 77.29 billion US dollars, an increase of 7% year-on-year, exports of fuel vehicles and spare parts, aircraft, medical instruments and other products increased year-on-year, and exports of mechanical and electrical products in the main export markets of the United States, China and the European Union increased by 1.4%, 5.1% and 10.9% respectively.

lowOn April 12, 2024, The State Council held a press conference to introduce the import and export situation in the first quarter of 2024

In the first quarter, the total import and export value of China's trade in goods was 10.17 trillion yuan, an increase of 5% year-on-year (the same below). Of this total, the export was 5.74 trillion yuan, up by 4.9%; Imports reached 4.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 5%; Exports and imports accelerated 4.1 percentage points and 2.3 percentage points respectively over the fourth quarter of last year.

http://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2024/33727/tw/

lowApril 10, 2024 The World Trade Organization expects the volume of global trade in goods to grow by 2.6% year-on-year in 2024

The WTO said easing inflationary pressures could help boost global goods trade by 2.6 per cent year on year in 2024, down from its previous forecast of 3.3 per cent. At the same time, the WTO also warned of the risk of trade fragmentation due to geopolitical tensions, rising protectionism and the worsening crisis in the Middle East.

https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news24_e/tfore_10apr24_e.htm

lowOn April 2, 2024, The General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for Coordinating the Construction of Financing Credit Service Platforms to Improve the Financing Convenience Level of Micro, Small and medium-sized Enterprises"

The plan includes strengthening the overall planning of the construction of financing credit service platforms, improving the collection and sharing mechanism of credit information, further promoting the work of "credit easy lending", deepening the application of credit big data, ensuring information security and the legitimate rights and interests of business entities, promoting financial institutions to change their business philosophy, optimize financial services, and prevent and control financial risks. To provide high-quality financial services to enterprises, especially small, medium and micro enterprises.

https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202404/content_6943103.htm

● On March 21, 2024, the General Administration of Customs held a special action deployment to promote cross-border trade facilitation in 2024

The activity aims to continuously improve the level of cross-border trade facilitation and promote the business environment of China's ports to a new level.

https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202403/content_6940934.htm

lowNotice of The General Office of the State Council on March 19, 2024 on the issuance of the Action Plan to Steadily Promote High-level Opening Up and Make Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment

The Plan includes: expanding market access and raising the level of foreign investment liberalization; Strengthen policies to make them more attractive to foreign investment; Optimize the fair competition environment and do a good job in providing services for foreign-invested enterprises; Smooth the flow of innovation factors and promote innovation cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises; Improve domestic regulations and better match the content of the five aspects of international high-standard economic and trade rules.

https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202403/content_6940154.htm

On March 20, 2024, The State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on The State Council's policy of promoting high-level opening up and making greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment

http://www.scio.gov.cn/live/2024/33491/index.html

lowOn March 19, 2024, the plenary meeting of the Inter-ministerial working Mechanism to promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade was held in Beijing

The meeting stressed that efforts should be made to eliminate institutional obstacles in the connection of domestic and foreign trade, strive to create a good development environment, create a platform for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, promote the smooth flow of domestic and foreign trade logistics, and strengthen the support of domestic and foreign trade talents. Efforts should be made to increase fiscal and financial policy support, better play the role of credit insurance, promote the landing of key tasks, and achieve substantive breakthroughs as soon as possible.

http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/xwfb/xwbldhd/202403/20240303482323.shtml