Foreign Trade Surpasses US$1 TLN in the First Five Months of 2008   

By Lily Wang    

On June 11th, 2008 the General Administration of Customs of China announced China's foreign trade in May 2008. The total import and export value was US$220.78 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33.2%. The export value rose 28.1% to US$120.49 billion while the import value rose 40% to US$100.29 billion. The monthly trade surplus in May was US$20.21 billion, down 9.9% year-on-year or US$2.21 billion less than the period of the previous year.
   The trade surplus this May exceeded that in April is due to import value hikes overshadowing the also strong export growth. But experts express that the imports hike may be temporarily affected by Sichuan earthquake and the holiday distortions.
   In the past five months of 2008, China's foreign trade hit US$1.012 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 26.2%, in which the export value increased 22.9% to US$545.05 billion while the import value was up 30.4% to US$467.03 billion. The total trade surplus was US$78.02 billion, a decrease of US$7.32 billion or 8.6% year-on-year. The figures showed that the increased imports outpaced exports, leading to a declined trade surplus.
    "The government's policy of encouraging imports and the surging prices of oil and raw materials have driven the import value to increase so fast in the first five months of 2008", an economist said.
    Since 2008, the trade by general trade mode has picked up fast. In the first five months of 2008, the trade by general trade mode rose 36.4% to US$486.92 billion, of which US$248.05 billion for export, up 26.3%; US$238.87 billion for import, up 48.7%. The trade by mode of processing with supplied materials was US$420.93 billion, up 15.8% year-on-year.
   In the past five months of 2008, the trade by foreign-invested firms, state-owned enterprises and other companies in China achieved US$563.61 billion (up 21.4%), US$246.52 billion (up 32.1%, lifting 1.1 percent point from the same period of 2007) and US$201.96 billion (up 33.8%) respectively.
   The European Union continued to be China's largest trade partner in the first five months of 2008, with bilateral trade of US$166.02 billion, up 27.9% year-on-year. The USA ranked the second with bilateral trade of US$130.47 billion, up 13.3%. The third was Japan with bilateral trade of US$106.56 billion, up 16.8%. The bilateral trade between China and India was US$24.16 billion, up 70.3%, topping eighth position.
   The export value of mechanical and electric products was up 26.1% to US$320.48 billion in the previous five months of 2008. China exported 150 thousand tons of crude oil and 1.63 million tons of oil products this May, and totally exported 950 thousand tons of crude oil and 6.48 million tons of oil products in the past five months of 2008, down 40.63% and up 0.2% respectively.
   Imports of primary products went up fast, driven by the import volume and high commodity prices. From January to May 2008, the import value of primary products reached US$150.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 69.4%. China imported 190 million tons of ferrous ore, up 16.9% year-on-year. Meanwhile China imported 16.2 million tons of crude oil and 4.66 million tons of oil products this May, and totally imported 75.97 million tons of crude oil and 17.34 million of oil products in the first five months of 2008, up 12.7% and 17.3% respectively, but the average import prices of oil and oil products were up 64.1% and 66.9% respectively. China imported 170 thousand units of automobile in the previous five months, up 59.1%.