Zhejiang Province-BRICS Trade Up Fast in Jan-Aug 2017

[2017-11-01]

According to Hangzhou Customs statistics, from January to August, Zhejiang Province trade with other BRICS countries (incl. Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa) totaled 155.23 billion yuan, up 23.0% year-on-year (YOY), accounting for 9.3% of gross foreign trade. Therein, export to BRICS was 122.09 billion yuan, up 19.2% YOY; import from BRICS was 33.14 billion yuan, up 39.7% YOY.

Trade Characteristics:

(1) Monthly import and export at high-level, YOY rising for 11 consecutive months.

This year, except February, Zhejiang trade with the BRICS kept more than 18 billion yuan, May value as high as 22.59 billion yuan, up 24.3% YOY; August value at 21.28 billion yuan, up 9.1% YOY, keeping 11 consecutive months of YOY increase since October 2016; YOY growth at double digits monthly except August, with peak at 59.9% in March.
(see the chart below.)

(2) The biggest proportion was with India, and the fastest growth with Brazil.

From January to August, Zhejiang-India trade reached 53.9 billion yuan, up 17.5%, accounting for 34.7% of total trade; Russia, Brazil, and South Africa ranked second, third and fourth, trade scale at 43.45 billion yuan, 39.73 billion yuan and 18.16 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 23.5%, 30.5% and 23.7% YOY.

(3) Export was far more than import, with big increase in Brazilian trade surplus.

In January-August, Zhejiang-BRICS trade surplus reached 88.95 billion yuan, an increase of 10.26 billion yuan YOY at 13%, with export value 3.7 times the import value. Therein, trade surplus was 41.03 billion yuan with India, down 5.8%; 28.93 billion yuan with Russia, up 25.9%; 11.44 billion yuan with Brazil, up 1.7 times; 7.55 billion yuan with South Africa, down 4.6%.

(4) Electro-mechanical products were the largest export, high-tech exports growing faster.

From January to August, Zhejiang exported electrical-mechanical products worth 55.08 billion yuan to BRICS countries, an increase of 26.9%, accounting for 45.1%; traditional labor-intensive products worth 38.67 billion yuan, up 15.1%, accounting for 31.7%. Over the same period, high-tech exports grew rapidly to 12.2 billion yuan, up 33.9%, the Indian market accounting for 72.8% and the Russian market for 15.5%.

(5) Major imports were iron ore, grain and petroleum as the bulk goods.

Affected by rising commodity prices, from January to August, the imports increased much from other BRICS countries. Iron ore, agricultural products, refined petroleum were the top three, respectively worth 6.95 billion yuan, 5.51 billion yuan and 2.92 billion yuan, up 58.4%, 32.8% and 1.0%. Among them, iron ore from Brazil, South Africa and India reached 4.26 billion yuan, 1.48 billion yuan and 1.17 billion yuan respectively, up 38.8%, 76.3% and 1.6 times respectively; agricultural products from Brazil reached 4.91 billion yuan, up 31.4%; refined petroleum from Russia 2.92 billion yuan, up 1.0%.
Source: China Customs
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