China's Foreign Trade Grew 9.8% in November        

China's foreign trade rose 9.8% year-on-year in November 2009 to US$208.2 billion, ending a 12-month decline, the General Administration of Customs posted on December 11th, 2009.
   Exports in November slightly fell 1.2% from a year earlier to US$113.65 billion while imports surged 26.7% year-on-year to US$94.56 billion. Both exports and imports saw a growth on monthly basis, with a monthly rise of 2.6% and 9% respectively.
   The figures marked an obvious recovery for China's foreign trade, the customs said.
   From January to November in 2009, the country's imports and exports totaled US$1.96 trillion, down 17.5% compared with the corresponding period of 2008, of which US$1.07 trillion for exports, down 18.8% and US$893 billion for imports, down 15.8%. The accumulated trade surplus was US$177.96 billion, down 30.6%.
   The EU remained China's largest trading partner, although bilateral trade declined 17% from a year ago to US$326.27 billion in the first eleven months of 2009. The United States was second with bilateral trade at US$266.54 billion, down 13.4%. And Japan followed with trade down 17.4% to US$203.33 billion.
   Exports of labor-intensive products, like garments and textile, furniture, bags and shoes, saw a narrow drop in the first eleven months, with garments falling 11.6% year-on-year, textile down 11.2% and shoes down 6.1%. Exports of plastic products shrunk 9.9% to US$12.74 billion in the first eleven months 2009. The exports of mechanical and electric products sharply declined 16.7% from a year earlier to US$635.08 billion.
   Furthermore, the import amount of general articles showed an increase in the past eleven months of 2009 while the import value saw a decline. China imported 570 million tons of iron ores and 37.77 million tons of soybeans respectively, up 38.4% and 10.6% over a year ago. Imports of chemicals and their related products stood at US$100.29 billion, down 10.5%. And the country imported 357 000 vehicles of automobiles, down 4.2%.
   The country exported 420 000 tons of crude oil and 2.24 million tons of oil products respectively in November 2009, and imported 17.12 million tons of crude oil and 2.38 million tons of oil products. China's crude import amount added up to 183 million tons in the first eleven months, surpassing that in the twelve months of 2008 (179 million tons).