General

After the total import and export value broke 400 billion yuan in July this year for the first time and hit a new historical high in a single month, Shanghai's foreign trade volume reached a new high again.

According to the official customs data, in August 2022, Shanghai's foreign trade import and export volume reached 414.97 billion yuan, an increase of 15.8% over the same period last year. Of which the export was 174.27 billion yuan, up 26.2%; Imports reached 240.7 billion yuan, up 9.2%.

According to Shanghai Customs data, exports to Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America increased by more than 25% in August. Among the main export commodities in August, some steel products, mechanical and electrical products, tablet computers and plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles showed multiple growth.

Self owned brand automobile enterprises have become the new force of China's automobile export. Among them, the sales volume of SAIC Group's overseas exports and overseas bases in the first eight months totaled 579900, up 56.67% year on year; In August, SAIC Group's overseas sales reached 101000 vehicles, up 65.7% year on year, accounting for nearly 20% of the total sales.

As Shanghai entered the stage of fully restoring normal production and living order in June, the supply chain of the industrial chain tends to be repaired, and imports and exports continue to stabilize and recover.

According to customs data, in July this year, Shanghai's foreign trade continued to maintain a rapid growth, and set a new record of breaking 400 billion yuan for the first time in the history. At the same time, exports and imports increased by 32.9% and 16.4% respectively compared with the same period last year, both higher than that of the whole country.

In terms of exports, the export of computer communication industry continues to play a pillar role. According to the statistics of Shanghai Customs, in the first seven months of this year, Shanghai exported 63.65 billion yuan of notebook computers, an increase of 26.1% over the same period last year (the same below), accounting for 7% of Shanghai's total export value. Among them, the export in July was 15.23 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 1.1 times, and a substantial increase for two consecutive months.

According to customs data, the export of notebook computers in Shanghai in the first seven months showed two characteristics: first, the proportion of processing trade exports declined. The export by processing trade was 60.79 billion yuan, up 22.4%, accounting for 95.5% of the total export value of notebook computers in Shanghai, down 2.9 percentage points. Secondly, the export of foreign-invested enterprises is absolutely dominant. The export of foreign-funded enterprises was 61.14 billion yuan, up 22.6%, accounting for 96.1%, down 2.7 percentage points. Mainly exported to the United States and the European Union. Exports to the United States and the European Union were 30.88 billion yuan and 13.95 billion yuan, up 29.6% and 34.5% respectively, accounting for 48.5% and 21.9% respectively.

At the same time, according to customs data, the export of new energy industry continued to grow, with the export growth of lithium batteries and solar cells reaching 560.9% and 197.4% respectively.

In terms of imports, in the first seven months of this year, the growth rate of high-end consumer goods imports led, with passenger cars, clocks, jewelry, diamonds and other high-end consumer goods growing by 56.9%, 13.8%, 36% and 14.7% respectively. The production situation of key industries is good, which drives the import of relevant raw materials and parts. The import of integrated circuits, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, automatic data processing equipment and accessories required for the production of computer communication industry increased by 23.2%, 42.2% and 73.7% respectively. The import of ferronickel and lithium carbonate, which are urgently needed for the development of new energy and other industries, increased by 216.3% and 37.1 times.

From July to August this year, Shanghai's foreign trade maintained double-digit growth for two consecutive months. The import and export volume has changed from a slight drop in the first half of the year to a year-on-year growth of 4.8% in the first eight months, contributing 15.9% to the national import and export growth from July to August. In the first eight months of this year, Shanghai's total import and export amounted to 2.7 trillion yuan, accounting for about one tenth of the country's total import and export volume in the same period.

The container throughput of Shanghai Port continues to maintain the first place in the world, reaching 26.848 million TEUs from January to July, including 4.303 million TEUs in July, a record high in the same period of history.

In order to continuously track and investigate the foreign trade situation and serve the country and Shanghai's foreign trade development, Shanghai Customs continued to conduct research on key foreign trade enterprises in August and September.

At noon on September 23, the onshore RMB exchange rate against the US dollar fell below the 7.1 threshold, hitting a new low since June 2020. Xiao Xiao, director of arts and gifts marketing of Shanghai Haifeiou, told First Finance that the depreciation of the RMB has increased the profits of foreign trade enterprises, and they are also paying close attention to foreign exchange settlement. In order to "grab orders", Du Chuankui, the head of Shanghai New Capital Industry Co., Ltd., told First Finance that they were calculating costs accurately and actively looking for the most appropriate price reduction ratio to attract customers and increase competitiveness.

Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and vice chairman of the China International Economic Exchange Center, told China First Finance and Economics that although the global market demand has shrunk overall, the U.S. and EU markets still rely heavily on China's supply chain, and will even usher in a node where the world depends more and more on China. Not only Europe and the United States, but also Japan and South Korea, which were not so demanding in the past, have seen more demand. Under such circumstances, China's foreign trade will usher in the most critical order receiving period this year. If the orders in the third quarter are good, the foreign trade in the fourth quarter and even the whole year will be optimistic.