Metallurgy / Chemicals / Rubber & Plastics

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, on February 16, Pang Guanglian, member of the Standing Committee and Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Committee of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation and Secretary-General of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry International Production Capacity Cooperation Enterprise Alliance, said in an interview with reporters that the growth rate of China's petrochemical trade has increased significantly since the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). Statistics show that the total petrochemical trade between China and RCEP member countries in 2022 reached US $292.81 billion, up 15% year on year.

Pang Guanglian said that since the implementation of RCEP one year ago, China's export of petrochemical products has grown rapidly, with the total export of petrochemical products to the RCEP region reaching 124.07 billion US dollars, up 30.7% year on year, 2.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of global export trade. The import trade also increased steadily. China's total import of petrochemical products from the RCEP region was US $168.74 billion, up 5.7% year on year.

According to the observation of Huacheng's import and export data, the trade of petrochemical products between China and the RCEP region accounted for 27.2% of the global trade, which declined compared with the previous year. This is mainly due to the impact of the increase in trade with the Middle East and other regions, and the share space is slightly reduced, but the volume of trade is still the largest. The trade volume of petrochemical products between China and the RCEP region is 3.5 times that of the EU, and more than the sum of the trade volume with the EU, North America and Russia.

"In the RCEP region, China's good trade performance with South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and other countries has led to the growth of trade in the entire RCEP region, stimulated the further integration of the regional industrial chain, and further deepened the economic and trade cooperation between all parties," Pang Guanglian stressed.

The effective implementation of RCEP also benefits domestic chemical enterprises. The propylene glycol methyl ether acetate products of Jiangsu Dana Chemical Co., Ltd. located in Nanjing are mainly exported to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions. "Thanks to RCEP, the company can enjoy a tax reduction of about 3% for products exported to Japan only, and the tariff reduction will exceed 3 million yuan in 2022." Lu Xiulan, the business manager of Dana Chemical, said that Huacheng's import and export data observation report.

"Over the past year, the import and export business volume of Hebei Chengxin Group Co., Ltd. and the member countries of the RCEP region has achieved considerable growth, and has also enjoyed some convenient conditions." Wang Xin, the general manager of the company, said that the company's trade volume with the member countries of the RCEP region in 2022 was 1.448 billion yuan, an increase of 44.82% over 2021.

A person in charge of a chemical enterprise said that due to the wide variety of petrochemical products exported by China and the great relationship between the tariff change and the product tax number, the tax reduction intensity and benefit degree of export products are different. However, the implementation of RECP this year is still a good start. I believe that export tariffs will continue to decline year by year in the future, and there will be more and more room for tax reduction.

According to Wuhan Customs, the traditional advantageous manufacturing industries in Hubei Province, such as chemicals, automobiles, textiles and clothing, have benefited greatly since the RCEP came into force one year ago, and the value of preferential goods will reach 2.3 billion yuan in 2022. Plastic and rubber products and chemical products rank second and third respectively in the ranking of import benefits. In terms of exports, Wuhan Customs handled 4390 RCEP visas in 2022, with a value of 1.308 billion yuan, and chemical products ranked the first among the certified goods. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.