By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-10 23:06:28

The volume of China's foreign trade, exports and imports all hit record highs in the first seven months of 2021, while their year-on-year growth rates set 10-year highs compared with the same period in previous years, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday.The country's total imports and exports expanded 24.5 percent year on year to 21.34 trillion yuan (about 3.3 trillion U.S. dollars) from January to July. Exports rose 24.5 percent from a year ago, while imports jumped 24.4 percent in the first seven months, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.In July, imports and exports rose 11.5 percent year on year to 3.27 trillion yuan, with the volume becoming the second highest in history only after that in June, the MOC said.China's exports to developed markets such as the United States, the European Union and Japan rose 22.6 percent in the first seven months. Its trade with emerging markets continued to grow, with exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Latin America, Africa and other emerging markets rising 26.5 percent year on year, boosting the overall exports growth by 13 percentage points, the MOC said.Various market entities have been dynamic in foreign trade, the MOC said.Exports of private enterprises rose 30.1 percent year on year in the first seven months, exports of foreign-funded enterprises climbed 17.9 percent, and exports of state-owned enterprises gained 16.7 percent.Nearly 95 percent of the new businesses that engaged in foreign trade in the first seven months are privately owned.New growth drivers for foreign trade continued to grow. In the first half of the year, cross-border e-commerce exports rose 44.1 percent year on year. Driven by new-energy vehicles, automobile exports rose 102.5 percent, a record high compared with that for the same period in previous years.Despite the rapid growth in foreign trade, the economic recovery still faces uncertainties due to the pandemic and the risks in industrial and supply chains, the MOC said. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-04 18:42:05

Demand for semi-finished and finished goods has been ramping up rapidly since the end of 2020, resulting in production and supply bottlenecks and, consequently, in rising manufacturing and procurement costs. The problems within the supply chains further aggravate the situation: The Covid-19 outbreak at the South Chinese port Yantian is adding to the already substantial delivery delays.“There are not enough raw materials on the market, which presents us with great challenges, especially when it comes to fasteners, wood connectors, mounting rails and fittings,” explained Robert Friedmann. “Continuing to supply our customers quickly and reliably remains our top priority. Further price increases will be unavoidable.”

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-30 20:23:46

A new direct China-Europe freight train service was launched on Thursday, linking north China's inland province of Shanxi with Turkey.A train loaded with goods, including daily necessities, machinery and equipment, left a logistics park in Taiyuan, the provincial capital, on Thursday morning for Mersin in southern Turkey.The new route brought the total number of China-Europe freight train routes via Shanxi to ten, linking over 30 cities from 11 countries in Central Asia and Europe. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-29 22:21:49

Foreign investors may smell new opportunities of tapping into the Chinese market, as the country has recently rolled out its first negative list in cross-border services trade in the southern island of Hainan, highlighting "equal market access" for domestic and overseas players.With high-level openness in areas including professional services, transport and finance, the list marked a great leap forward for China to further open its market after unveiling the negative lists for foreign investment, experts said.For instance, among the 160 services sub-sectors under the World Trade Organization (WTO) classification, around 120 saw a higher level of openness under the new list compared with China's commitments when it joined the WTO, official data showed.Adopting a negative list in cross-border services trade demonstrated China's determination to continuously deepen reforms and actively expand opening-up, said Liu Tao, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.It will accelerate the concentration of service-related elements such as data, advanced technologies and high-end talent in Hainan and the whole nation, which is conducive to boosting China's services trade, according to Liu.Opening-up has secured a crucial position in China's policy design since it started opening its market to the world more than 40 years ago. That stance did not change even against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rollout of new opening-up measures.After years of efforts, China has seen free trade zones spring up from coastal to inland areas and released a master plan to build Hainan into a free trade port.Hainan is not the only testing ground for China's new policy tools. Earlier this month, China released a guideline to support the high-level reform and opening-up of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai.Restrictions in the financial sector will be further lifted, as the country will introduce a pilot program in the Nasdaq-style sci-tech innovation board that will allow qualified foreign institutional investors to use the yuan to participate in stock offerings, according to the guideline."High-level reform and opening-up will provide a convenient and open environment and institutional guarantee for multinationals, thus increasing their interests in investing in China," said Nie Pingxiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (CAITEC) under the Ministry of Commerce.GRAVITATING TOWARD CHINADue to its opening-up measures and resilient economic fundamentals, China has become a popular destination for foreign investors looking for growth and development opportunities.The just-concluded second Qingdao Multinationals Summit drew representatives of 390 Fortune 500 companies and 517 industry leaders. The two-day event saw 96 key foreign-invested projects signed, with the total investment value reaching 11.85 billion U.S. dollars.Official data showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surged 28.7 percent year on year in yuan terms, or 33.9 percent year on year in U.S. dollar terms in the first half of 2021. The growth pace was the highest during the same period in almost 10 years in both yuan and U.S. dollar terms.With a huge market, a complete industrial chain and a constantly improving business environment, China has become an important source of profit growth for multinationals, said Gu Xueming, head of the CAITEC.As the Chinese economy is gradually transitioning from fast and quantitative expansion to quality-oriented growth, more high-quality foreign investment is needed, experts noted."While sustaining stable growth of foreign investment, China is expected to improve foreign-investment structure, so as to attract more investors in high-tech sectors," said Nie. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-28 22:53:14

The New Bund Global Economic Organization Cluster was unveiled in Shanghai's Pudong New Area on Wednesday, as part of its efforts to attract more international economic entities to drive high-quality growth.China issued a guideline on July 15 to support high-level reform and opening-up of Pudong. The guideline listed measures to build Pudong into a pioneer area for socialist modernization.The guideline also pointed out that Pudong should play a role in drawing more international economic organizations and multinational companies' regional headquarters to the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.Currently, a total of 10 international economic organizations have set up offices in the New Bund of Pudong (Qiantan Area).Yang Chao, deputy head of the Pudong New Area, said that the New Bund Global Economic Organization Cluster will gather more corporate headquarters, international organizations and institutions with global influence, helping Pudong become the prime option for many international organizations and improving Shanghai's global competitiveness. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-26 20:58:21

China's road cargo transport registered solid growth in the first half of this year, official data shows.The road freight volume amounted to approximately 18.48 billion tonnes in the January-June period, up 29 percent year on year, according to data from the Ministry of Transport.The central province of Hubei saw the fastest growth in the period, with a growth rate of 204.9 percent.In the first six months, fixed-asset investment in road construction reached 1.15 trillion yuan (about 177.9 billion U.S. dollars), up 13.8 percent year on year, according to the ministry. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-23 22:21:14

Guangdong Province, a manufacturing heartland and leading foreign trade player in China, reported robust trade growth in the first half of 2021.Foreign trade of the southern Chinese province totaled 3.8 trillion yuan (about 588 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 24.5 percent year on year, the Guangdong sub-administration of General Administration of Customs said Friday.Its exports grew 26.9 percent year on year to 2.3 trillion yuan while imports increased 20.9 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan.Local private businesses continued to be the biggest contributor to foreign trade. Their foreign trade totaled 2.16 trillion yuan in the six months, up 29.2 percent year on year and accounting for 56.9 percent of the total trade.Guangdong's trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the United States all grew by over 20 percent year on year during the period.Its trade with the participating countries of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership member countries jumped 16.5 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-22 23:31:28

SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), a major Chinese automobile manufacturer, reported strong vehicle sales in the first six months of 2021, the company said.SGMW, a joint venture between SAIC Motor, General Motors, and Liuzhou Wuling Motors, sold 884,195 vehicles during the period, up by 39.5 percent year on year, maintaining a positive year-on-year growth for 15 consecutive months.The Wuling brand sold 693,351 units in the first six months, up by 56.84 percent year on year, while the sales of Baojun, another vehicle brand of the company, reached 123,057 units.Its exports gained 91 percent, year on year, to 74,225 units and sets during the period, seeing six successive months of growth.The sales of the company's new energy vehicles (NEVs) also posted strong growth, with the total sales of small NEVs reaching 189,644 units during the January-June period. It exceeded its total NEVs sales throughout last year.SGMW is based in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-07-21 23:13:26

A China-Singapore land-sea trade corridor has expanded its reach to 304 ports in 106 countries and regions worldwide, better connecting the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by Singapore and provincial-level regions of western China. Chongqing Municipality is the center of operation for the corridor.Goods are transported via various modes including railways, highways and water routes to the Beibu Gulf in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before being shipped to other parts of the world along the sea routes. The corridor offers a faster alternative for western Chinese provinces and autonomous regions other than transporting goods via the east coast.From January to June, the corridor's domestic section of the land-sea freight route transported 47,880 twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo, a notable year-on-year increase of 147 percent, according to data from the corridor's logistics and operating center.In the first half of the year, land-sea freight trains departing from Chongqing made 952 trips, surging 147 percent year on year. Enditem

By EUROPEAN COMMISSION| 2021-07-20 22:53:58

On 21 December 2020, the European Commission initiated an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of certain iron or steel fasteners originating in the People’s Republic of China.1 The proceeding was initiated under Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Union2 ('the basic Regulation').Given the technical complexity of the case, the Commission has decided to continue the anti-dumping investigation rather than impose provisional measures at this stage.This note therefore constitutes the notification to interested parties required under Article 19a(2) of the basic Regulation.