General

Although the foreign trade export industry faced multiple pressures from home and abroad in the first half of this year, China's foreign trade still delivered a bright answer. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in the first half of 2022, China's total import and export value reached 3.08 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; exports were 1.73 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. Among them, the contribution of small, medium and micro export enterprises should not be underestimated.

A few days ago, XTransfer and the Business Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade released the "Export Trade (B2B) Index Report of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in the First Half of 2022", pointing out that China's foreign trade has achieved steady progress in the first half of 2022, and is expected to further stabilize in the second half of the year. Medium speed, stable quality. At the same time, with the deepening of RCEP cooperation and the implementation of policies, the national industrial chain and supply chain in the RCEP region will achieve complementary advantages and deep integration, which will stimulate new vitality for foreign trade development. It is expected that in the second half of the year, China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises will release greater development potential for export trade to the RCEP region.

Stabilizing and rising trend is obvious

The "China's Foreign Trade Export Leading Index for the First Half of 2022" released at the same time shows that the overall trend of China's foreign trade export leading index in the first half of 2022 will remain the same as last year, and it will increase significantly compared with the first half of 2021.

The report said that since April, affected by a series of factors such as the epidemic, China's foreign trade export leading index has been under pressure for a while, but it rebounded significantly in June, sending a positive signal. On the one hand, this is due to the rapid control of the domestic epidemic, the recovery of the supply chain, and the release of backlogged demand, which has strengthened the rebound to a certain extent; on the other hand, it is inseparable from the intensively introduced policies to stabilize the economy and foreign trade; As the management mechanism is more flexible, it can adjust its business strategy in a timely manner to minimize adverse effects.

In B2B export trade, collection data tends to show trends ahead of customs data and logistics data. According to the report, in the first half of the year, the receipts of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in China increased by 15.3% year-on-year, which was higher than the 14.2% year-on-year increase in the national export value.

The report believes that this shows the extraordinary resilience and strong adaptability of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in the face of external pressure.

In addition, the report also shows that in terms of export destinations, the top three export value of China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in the first half of the year are: North America, the European Union, and ASEAN. The trading partners with higher export growth rate are the United States, Canada, Singapore, Italy, South Africa, and the Philippines. On the whole, the continued boom in my country's exports to North America and ASEAN is an important driving force for the steady improvement of exports. From the perspective of export product categories, among the major exporting countries, the export value of transportation equipment, leather and its products increased the most, with an increase of 38.2% year-on-year. Medical precision instruments, metals and their products also saw substantial growth.

RCEP dividends continue to be released

Six months after the official implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises have increased their foreign trade exports to many trading partners in the RCEP region.

According to the "Export RCEP Regional Activity Index of China's Small, Medium and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises in the First Half of 2022", in the first half of the year, the number of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises exporting to RCEP countries increased by 23.1% year-on-year. This shows that in the six months since RCEP came into effect, the policy dividends have been gradually released, providing new opportunities for foreign trade companies to reduce tariff costs and seize the international market, and inject a steady stream of new vitality into China's foreign trade development.

The index is comprehensively evaluated from three dimensions: average order quantity, average collection amount, and average transaction frequency. The report pointed out that in the first half of 2022, the export RCEP regional activity index of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises showed strong resilience, showing a trend of steady and rising in the context of the impact of the epidemic and the complex and severe international situation. In the first half of 2022, China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises' export receipts in the RCEP region increased by 11.4% year-on-year, slightly lower than the overall increase of 15.3% in receipts. The off-season of foreign trade business has a certain relationship, which is a normal cyclical fluctuation.

From the perspective of export destinations, the top three export value of Chinese small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in the RCEP region are: South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam; and the top three by growth rate are: Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

From the perspective of export product categories, exports to the main exporting countries in the RCEP region, transportation equipment and spare parts, leather and its products, and medical precision instruments have increased significantly. Benefiting from lower labor costs, land costs and better local preferential policies, OEM-based manufacturing is shifting to some RCEP countries, further driving up the demand for various spare parts and raw materials.

The report predicts that in the second half of the year, China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises will release greater development potential for export trade to the RCEP region.