General

In response to recent reports that the number of empty containers in China's ports has increased, General Administration of Customs Director Yu Jianhua stated on the 20th that according to the latest data from customs, the number of export containers in China has been continuously increasing since late February.

On the same day, Yu Jianhua, the Director of the General Administration of Customs, stated at the "Opening of Authoritative Department Talks" series of themed press conferences held by the State Administration of Customs, that the increase in empty containers is due to the previous period's excessive new container placement, low domestic storage costs, and the short-term large number of empty containers returning after the relief of the foreign epidemic, as well as seasonal patterns. A large number of empty containers are waiting to be shipped in China's ports, which to some extent reflects that the international market is still optimistic about our export capacity in the next stage. According to the latest customs data, since late February, China's export container usage has been continuously increasing.

Yu Jianhua, Director of the General Administration of Customs, said that in terms of scale, the total export value in the first two months hit a record high, with an increase of 0.9%, better than expected. The total import and export value exceeded 6 trillion yuan, which is the second time in history. In terms of composition, during the epidemic period, China took the lead in resuming work and production, and the export of epidemic prevention materials and "residential economy" products increased significantly, raising the foreign trade base; From a trend perspective, according to weekly monitoring, China's foreign trade imports and exports have significantly stabilized since February, with a month on month increase of over 15% in the last week of February compared to the previous week; From the perspective of neighboring countries, China's foreign trade performance is good compared to neighboring economies that have already released data.

The World Trade Organization recently predicted that global trade in goods was weak in the first quarter of this year, with an expected growth rate of only 1% for the entire year. Local governments and enterprises also generally reflect that the weakening of external demand and the decline in orders are the biggest challenges facing the current development of foreign trade, and trade risks such as poor payment collection in some countries have also increased.

Yu Jianhua, Director of the General Administration of Customs, said that the development of foreign trade does face many difficulties and challenges, but we should also see the positive side. For example, in the first two months, in terms of business entities, the customs newly registered 46000 foreign trade business entities; In terms of orders, the proportion of enterprises with an increase in the amount of new export orders has continuously increased; In terms of new energy, the total export growth of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells in the "new three samples" was 60%.

Overall, the foreign trade situation is still severe and complex, but it also contains many opportunities, and the difficulties are more global. In comparison, China's competitive advantage is still obvious. With the overall improvement of China's economic situation, the momentum of stable opening of foreign trade in the first two months is expected to continue. Therefore, we are confident that China's foreign trade will achieve the goal of promoting stability and improving quality this year. "said Yu Jianhua, Director of the General Administration of Customs.