Synthetic Drugs – Favorable Foreign Trade Balance Narrowed Further in 2015

China’s foreign trade in synthetic drugs reached US$59.35 billion in 2015, an increase of 3.03% over the previous year. Exports amounted to US$31.5 billion, up only 0.42%, while imports were worth US$27.85 billion, up 6.16%. Growth was significantly slower for both import and export. The favorable foreign trade balance for synthetic drugs was further eroded by 28.95%, down to only US$3.65 billion.

Export

China exported 8.01 million tons of synthetic drugs in 2015, up 3.87% YoY. Export prices averaged 3.33% lower.
Seventy two percent of exports went to Asia and Europe in 2015, and value was unchanged YoY. The export to North America made a constant pickup, both the export amount and the export price achieved a small-range increase and the export value was 3.21% higher than the previous year. Latin America and Oceania took a greater volume than in 2014, but at a lower average price. Due to unfavorable factors of recent years such as currency devaluation and exchange controls, the volume exported to Africa was 6.3% lower YoY, but at a slightly higher average price; still, the total export value declined.
China exported synthetic drugs to 193 countries and regions in 2015. India was still the top export destination, but the growth of exports to India was much slower. The amount exported to India was only 1.07% higher than in the previous year and the export value was 2.25% lower.
APIs remained the principal varieties exported, accounting for 81.34% of the total export value. The value of exported APIs was US$25.62 billion, a drop of 0.91% from the previous year. The API export volume was 4.44% higher, but the average price was 5.12% lower.

Import

The import volume of synthetic drugs in 2015 increased 4.54% YoY, and the import price increased 1.55%. The import value did increase 6.16%, but it was the slowest year of growth since 2000.
Europe is China’s main source of imported chemical drugs, supplying 65.58% of the total value in 2015. The import volume was 8.96% lower than in the previous year, but the import price was 16.83% higher and the import value increased 6.36%. Asia was the number two source, supplying 15.24% of the total value. The Asian import price was down 10.88% YoY, dragging the import value down 4.10%. North America supplied 13.44% of imported synthetic drugs, by value. Owing to substantial growth in both import volume and price, the import value increased drastically, by 19.18%.
Pharmaceutical enterprises in China continue to deal with familiar problems in 2016, such as slack international demand, increasing pressure to minimize costs and the burden of excess capacity, despite the remarkable achievements of recent years in industrial transformation/upgrades and in product offerings. China’s foreign trade in synthetic drugs will therefore keep growing slowly in the future.