Beijing, 13 Jul (Xinhua) -- Title: Stability and Improvement, Tenacity -- Looking at the development of China's foreign trade from the perspective of "sea, land and air."
Xinhua News Agency reporters Fan Xi, Xie Xiyao and Zhou Yuan
On the 13th, China's foreign trade report card for the first half of the year was released, and the import and export scale of 18.07 trillion yuan hit the best level in the same period in history; the growth rate of 27.1% achieved positive year-on-year growth for 13 consecutive months. In the first half of the first half of the "14th Five-Year Plan", foreign trade was stable and good, and it was full of resilience.
Behind the eye-catching data is the busy scene of the smooth flow of goods in major ports and the continuous growth of air and rail freight.
"Our company ships overseas every day, sending tens of thousands of containers a year." Yang Nan, chairman of Wuxi Jinmao Foreign Trade Co., Ltd., said.
The textile production and trading company experienced a downward trajectory last year. In the first half of this year, trade growth of 64% was achieved.
The reporter came to the world's largest and most automated container terminal on the fourth phase of Yangshan Port, where tower cranes are lined up and the terminal operates 24 hours a day. Zhang Xin, deputy general manager of SIPG Group, said that in 2021, Yangshan Port Phase IV Terminal is expected to complete a container throughput of 5 million TEUs.
At the same time, land transport and air routes have also continued to exert efforts. According to data from China National Railway Group Co., Ltd., in the first half of this year, the China-Europe express train continued its strong development trend, with the number of trains and the number of boxes increasing by 43% and 52% respectively year-on-year, and the number of trains opened in a single month exceeded 1,000 trains. In China, 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have opened China-Europe express trains; abroad, China-Europe express trains reach different parts of eurasia such as the European Union and Russia.
"China-Europe Express continues to boost our business." Ai Li, a salesman at Xinjiang Xiyu Wudun Agricultural Products Co., Ltd., said that in the past, many agricultural products in Xinjiang needed to be transported to Tianjin Port first, and then arrived in Europe and other places by sea, and now the goods can be gathered in the Urumqi assembly center of the China-Europe Express for direct export, saving nearly half the time.
With shorter transit times and higher product cost performance, Chinese goods are gaining the favor of consumers in more countries and regions. Statistics from the Civil Aviation Administration of China show that in the first half of the year, China's air cargo and mail transportation demand was strong, and the international market maintained rapid growth. The industry completed a total of 3.743 million tons of cargo and mail transportation, an increase of 24.6% year-on-year, an increase of 6.4% over the same period in 2019.
"In the first five months of this year, the value of cross-border e-commerce export charter business in the park increased by 2.5 times year-on-year." Chen Liyan, a staff member of the Qianjiang Customs office in Xiasha, which belongs to Hangzhou Customs, said. Since The Xiasha Park of China (Hangzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone took the lead in launching China's cross-border e-commerce export charter business in 2018, the number of export commodity orders and charter flights has increased significantly.
Li Kuiwen, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, said that the domestic economy is stabilized and strengthened, stable and improving, and the vitality of market players is enhanced, which provides strong support for the sustained and stable growth of foreign trade. The continued recovery of the global economy has led to an increase in external demand. In addition, last year's low base and price factors also played a role in stimulating the growth of foreign trade to a certain extent. However, "at present, the new crown pneumonia epidemic is still spreading in many parts of the world, the trend of the epidemic is complex, and there are still many uncertainties and unstable factors facing the development of foreign trade." ”
"Steel, copper, rubber... Basically, the materials involved in the parts are very expensive. Yuan Zhiyou, chairman of Sichuan Jiayi Co., Ltd., said, "The container freight rate has also doubled several times than the original." ”
The company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and export of mechanical and electrical products such as motorcycles and parts, and achieved export growth of more than 10% in the first half of the year. "There is no problem in doubling the annual output value by letting go of the hand, but the risk is very large and the profit is very thin." Yuan Zhiyou said, "If the customer refuses to pick up the goods, a single freight may dilute the entire profit." ”
According to the latest analysis report of the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, in June, the average of the China Export Container Composite Freight Rate Index released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange was 2483.60 points, up an average of 13.9% from the previous month.
Yuan Zhiyou's troubles also reflect the general pressures faced by China's foreign trade enterprises at present: exchange rate fluctuations, rising freight rates, and high raw material prices...
In the face of pressure, many Chinese foreign trade enterprises choose to move forward under pressure.
"We have added more than 20 million yuan this year to invest in the research and development and layout of core components of new energy vehicles." Yuan Zhiyou said.
Yang Nan is also accelerating the pace of enterprise transformation and upgrading, in recent years, Jinmao relies on the domestic textile fabric supply advantages, in the United States, britain, Ethiopia and other countries and regions to lay out the global supply chain and service network, resist risks and seize the market ability greatly enhanced, "both the situation is forced, but also the trend."
"Looking forward to the trend of foreign trade throughout the year, the development of foreign trade faces opportunities and challenges, but we believe that the opportunities are greater than the challenges." Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said.
A few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Formats and Models of Foreign Trade", supporting the use of new technologies and new tools to empower the development of foreign trade, improving the support policies for the development of cross-border e-commerce, and cultivating a number of outstanding overseas warehouse enterprises. Support traditional enterprises to use advanced technology and use digital means to enhance the value of traditional brands.
"Our products have become a big seller in the apparel category of Amazon's platform." Shen Ang, vice president and logistics director of Hangzhou Anzhi E-commerce Co., Ltd., said. The company is mainly engaged in outdoor clothing, benefiting from the new model of cross-border e-commerce b2b and global central warehouse, and the company's turnover exceeded 110 million yuan in the first half of this year, doubling compared with the same period last year.
Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that the scale of cross-border e-commerce in China has increased by nearly 10 times in 5 years. At present, there are more than 1500 foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises and more than 1900 overseas warehouses.
Zhuang Rui, a professor at the National Institute of Opening Up to the Outside World of the University of International Business and Economics, said that in the future, foreign trade enterprises should firmly seize the opportunities for the development of new formats and new models, strive to build product and brand competitiveness, expand market growth space, and cultivate comprehensive competitive advantages.
Source: Xinhua Net