August Trade Surplus Hit New High   

By Lily Wang    

On September 10th, 2008 the General Administration of Customs of China announced China's foreign trade in August 2008. The total import and export value was US$241.05 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22%. The export value reached US$134.87 billion while the import value was US$106.18 billion. The monthly trade surplus was US$28.69 billion in August, hitting a monthly high since 2008. "The export growth slowed to 21.1% year-on-year in August from 26.9% in July, but the import growth fell sharply to 23.1% year-on-year from 33.7% in July, which led to the high monthly surplus", analysts said.
    The gloomy global economy has had a negative impact on China's export growth. On the other hand, the slowed import growth was attributed to the downward international prices of oil and raw material, and enormous imports for stock before the Olympics Games. Analysts expect that the trade surplus may follow a downtrend in the remaining months of the year.
   In the first eight months of 2008, China's foreign trade amounted to US$1.72 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 25.7%, in which the export value increased 22.4% to US$937.69 billion while the import value was up 30% to US$785.69 billion. The total trade surplus was US$151.99 billion, a decrease of US$10.08 billion or 6.2% year-on-year.
   In the first eight months of 2008, the trade by general trade mode rose 36.2% to US$840.07 billion, of which US$437.93 billion for export, up 26.5% year-on-year. The trade by mode of processing with supplied materials was US$702.68 billion, up 14.6% year-on-year.
   The European Union continued to be China's largest trade partner in the first eight months of 2008, with bilateral trade of US$283.32 billion, up 26.9% year-on-year. The USA ranked the second with bilateral trade of US$219.7 billion, up 13.3%. The third was Japan with bilateral trade of US$178.07 billion, up 18.4%. The bilateral trade between China and India was US$37.86 billion, up 59.1%.
    The growth of exports to the European Union fell to the lowest 22% this August from around 30% in early 2008. The upward export growth to the United States from 8% in June to 24.4% in August is due to the lower export growth base of 9.4% in last August. In addition to Brazil, the growth of exports to the emerging markets has slowed obviously.
   The export value of mechanical and electric products was up 24.7% to US$538.65 billion in the first eight months of 2008. The export value of plastic products was US$9.69 billion, slightly up 0.1%.
   China exported 400 thousand tons of crude oil and 1.4 million tons of oil products in August. China exported 2.22 million tons of crude oil and 10.93 million tons of oil products in the first eight months of 2008.
   Imports of primary products continues to go up fast, being US$259.25 billion in the first eight months of 2008, up 70.3%, driven by the growing import prices. The import value of chemicals and related products was US$84.2 billion in the first eight months of 2008, up 20.6%. China imported 282 thousand units of automobile in the first eight months, up 45.2%.
   China imported 15.65 million tons of crude oil and 3.34 million tons of oil products this August, and totally imported 119.98 million tons of crude oil and 28.72 million tons of oil products in the first eight months of 2008, up 8.7% and 18.3% respectively.