According to the latest data provided by the Russian Federal Customs Service quoted by the Russian Satellite News Agency on November 11, from January to September 2021, the total trade between China and Russia increased by 32% year-on-year to reach $98.938 billion. Sino-Russian trade has exceeded $100 billion for three consecutive years and is expected to double by 2024.
Russian seafood
The data shows that Russia's total exports to the Chinese market increased by 34.9% to 48.406 billion US dollars, Russia's total imports from China increased by 29.3% to 50.532 billion US dollars, and during the reporting period, China's proportion of Russia's total foreign trade reached 17.8%.
Chinese vegetables will be transported by freight train to Primorsky Krai, Russia
According to Russia's Kommersant newspaper a week ago, China is the largest importer of Russian buckwheat for the 2021 agricultural season. At the same time, more than 50% of Russia's total beef exports have also entered the Chinese market. At present, Russian consumers prefer cross-border e-commerce shopping, and they can buy various supplies such as Made in China without leaving home.
A corner of a Russian city
According to a november 12 report by AliExpress Russia News Service, 10.5 million Russians put goods into their shopping carts on the eve of the launch of China's e-commerce website Double Eleven, such as New Year's jewelry, home fabrics, beauty supplies, portable chargers, POCO smartphones, women's sweat shirts, oximeters, and plush toys are the most popular.
According to the Russian Export Center told the Satellite News Agency on the 11th, Russian companies held a total of 234 business talks during the fourth China International Import Expo held in Shanghai, of which 145 were offline talks and 89 were online talks, according to a written survey of Russian participating enterprises, according to the results of the talks, the scale of the agreement that may be signed according to the results of the talks is 40 million US dollars.
Russian companies and Chinese partners discussed the supply prospects of food, children's food, beverages, tea, drinking water, confectionery products, and the promotion of Russian food on Chinese e-commerce platforms. In this regard, the Russian satellite news agency Moscow quoted the Russian container shipping company on November 11, which plans to expand the volume of freight from China through cooperation with Chinese logistics platforms.
Cross-border e-commerce in Russia
The analysis believes that food and agricultural products are becoming a new driving force to promote the development of Russian-Chinese trade, because the demand for green and nutritious food by Chinese consumers will become more and more large, at the same time, Russia in recent years is also attracting Chinese investors to participate in the agricultural field in Russia, and the Russian Far East Investment and Export Support Agency said earlier that it is willing to provide 1 million hectares of land to China for agricultural projects, hoping that Chinese funds will come to the region. Data show that in the first seven months of this year, China's industry-wide investment in Russia reached $200 million, an increase of 33% year-on-year.
The new development of the current matter is that according to russian media two weeks ago, the Russian Far East will cooperate with Chinese investors in soybean processing projects, which require 500,000 hectares of agricultural land in the Far East Federal District, and according to the Russian Businessman's Daily a week ago, citing the latest release of the Russian authorities' "Russian-Far East Cooperation Development Plan 2024" document, Russia will also promise to provide land and preferential financing for projects involving Chinese investors in agriculture, hoping to attract Chinese technology companies to the Russian island in the Far East. For agricultural investment projects, or to establish an R&D headquarters base.
According to the data released by the Russian Far East and Arctic Development Group in early November, the number of Foreign enterprises in the Russian Far East Advanced Development Zone is the largest, as of October 20, 13 Chinese companies have been operating in the Russian Far East as enterprises settled in the Advanced Development Zone, and 7 japanese companies have settled in, for example, according to the Russian Foreign Trade Economic Bank to the Russian Satellite News Agency, at present, the bank is considering 20 Far East and Arctic projects, with a total financing scale of 24.6 billion US dollars (1.8 trillion rubles).
According to the Russian Satellite News Agency quoted a week ago, in the past agricultural year, China accounted for 78% of Russia's soybean exports, and Russian agricultural enterprises exported about 1.08 million tons of soybeans to the Chinese market, up 38% year-on-year, which also made Russia export a record 1.38 million tons of soybeans in 2021 agriculture, an increase of 4% year-on-year. Russia mainly exports soybeans (921,200 tons) from the Far East.
Chinese likes Russian agricultural products
At present, The Sino-Russian border trade has been basically settled in local currency, and it is worth mentioning that the Russian Satellite News Agency reported a week ago that Harbin Bank became the first commercial bank in China to join the foreign exchange trading platform of the Russian Federal Savings Bank financial market, which can carry out 35 currency pairs of RMB/ruble transactions. This will also help the development of the relevant real economy, and also provide convenience for more Russian agricultural products to enter the Chinese market in terms of currency settlement and transportation. The Russian Satellite News Agency recently quoted the moscow Ministry of Investment and Industrial Policy as saying that in order to consolidate operations in the Chinese market, Russian companies are undergoing digital transformation of business as one of the most effective sales means.
The latest development is that according to the speech of the governor of the Russian Amur Oblast, the toll collection system of the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe Boundary River Highway Bridge between Russia and China has been tested, and the cross-border bridge port is ready to be opened to traffic, at the same time, Alexei Shilo, deputy general manager of the Russian Railway Company, also told the Russian media that the first railway bridge between China and Russia across the Amur River will be fully operational in 2022, and the newly added Chinese border port is necessary to improve logistics.
At the same time, according to the Information Office of the Russian State Technology Group revealed two weeks ago, the group will also modernize the 3 highway ports on the border between China, Russia and Mongolia in order to improve the traffic capacity and reduce logistics costs, which is highly dependent on resource exports, the economy is often more passive, once the price of resource commodities is lower, its economy will face a serious recession in Mongolia will become more important, and the activation of the China-Russia-Mongolia Economic Corridor will be more important for Mongolia, which has no access to the sea. It is likely to become a transportation hub between large markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
For example, the collapse of commodities in 2014 has left Mongolia in debt, and many Mongolian people have donated their horses, sheep, gold, jewelry, according to official Data released by Mongolian officials in November, due to the impact of the continued spread of the new coronavirus and supply chain disruptions, the country's finances fell by 13%, and last year's total economy continued to drop to $13.1 billion, even exceeding the level of the 2008 financial crisis.
More than that, Mongolia's external debt is still at a high level, which may become difficult to pay interest on debt after the fiscal revenue declines, and it is not an exaggeration even to describe it as a national debt repayment (as shown in the figure below). According to the Data of the Central Bank of Mongolia, as of July, the country's total external debt increased by another $10.3 billion, an increase of 13.2%, according to the news released by the Central Bank of Mongolia on September 18, Mongolia's foreign exchange reserves have reached $4.3 billion.
It is in these market and economic contexts that the Russian Satellite News Agency quoted Gazprom as saying that the company is discussing the possibility of sending Russian natural gas to China from Mongolia, and experts from the three countries will study the feasibility of laying a Russian gas pipeline to China through Mongolia, including the establishment of a joint team. The analysis believes that increasing the closeness to the Chinese market is becoming a new driving force for Mongolia's economic recovery, and it has also become the latest development in this matter.
The capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
According to the latest speech of the Country's authorities quoted by the Mongolian News Agency on November 11, the construction of the "Eastern Alliance" pipeline that Russia transits through Mongolia to transport natural gas to the Chinese market is scheduled to begin in 2024, and the route of the 960.5-kilometer pipeline has been determined. After a feasibility demonstration at the end of 2021, engineers and technicians will begin detailed design work, with preparations to be completed in two years, followed by construction.
The media said that at present, the feasibility demonstration of the project has reached 70%, and china, Russia and Mongolia may sign an agreement on price adjustment. In addition, Mongolia is preparing a draft law on transport gas pipelines, while Mongolia is negotiating with Gazprom to enable it to consume not only natural gas transported by the "Eastern Union".
As we mentioned in previous reports, in April 2021, a feasibility analysis of the construction of the "Eastern Alliance" gas pipeline was approved, which will run through Mongolia and become a continuation of Russia's "Siberian Force 2" gas pipeline. In this regard, Russian media analysis believes that the western pipeline through mongolia, its transportation efficiency will be greatly improved, the news shows that Mongolia has also repeatedly issued invitations to relevant enterprises in China and Russia, put forward the hope that a natural gas transportation pipeline line in Mongolia can also be built to supply natural gas requests. At present, Russia and China are discussing the expansion of the pipeline's annual gas transmission capacity to 440 cubic meters.
At the same time, in order to save the economy, Mongolia in recent years like Vietnam to learn the development model of China's economy, and in the largest land port on the Border between China and Mongolia zamen Ude city to establish a free economic and trade zone, we have noticed that here can be used for consumption in the renminbi, become one of the driving forces of Mongolia's economic growth, to help its sustained recovery, in addition, Mongolia has also begun to vigorously support the development of digital assets in the country, and formulated a series of preferential policies to develop digital assets, In order to seize the great opportunity of China's digital economy development.
The analysis believes that increasing the proximity to the Chinese market is also becoming a new driving force for Mongolia's economy, the latest progress is that China is vigorously driving the country's trade, at present, the trade volume between China and Mongolia has accounted for 68% of Mongolia's total trade, for example, from the Data released by Mongolian Customs a week ago, in the first three quarters of this year, Mongolia exported 11.3792 million tons of coal to China, accounting for 94.9% of Mongolia's total coal exports, and in the first 8 months of 2021, Mongolia's foreign trade reached 10 billion US dollars. This represents an increase of $2.2 million, or 27 percent, compared to the same period last year.
According to the latest statistics of Erenhot Customs, in the first 8 months of 2021, Erlian Port imported 5.331 million tons of iron ore, with a cargo value of 2.93 billion yuan, an increase of 55.4%, and imported 394,000 tons of fluorite, an increase of 30% over the same period in 2020, Erenhot Railway Port is not only the largest land port between China and Mongolia, but also an important node city on the China-Russia-Mongolia Economic Corridor, and an important transportation channel for China's goods export to Mongolia and Russia and other countries. (End)