In the first two months of this year, China's import and export of goods increased by 32.2% compared with the same period last year

release time:2021/3/23

In 2020, China's total value of imports and exports in goods reached 32.16 trillion yuan, up 1.9% year on year and hitting a new record high, making China the only major economy in the world to achieve positive growth in goods trade. This fully demonstrates China's strong resilience and comprehensive competitiveness in foreign trade.

In the first two months of this year, China's total value of imports and exports in goods was 5.44 trillion yuan, up 32.2 percent over the same period last year. Exports were particularly strong, up 50.1 percent year on year. The growth rate was significant and "the slack season was not weak", continuing the positive trend of import and export from negative to positive since last June.

With the continuous advancement of the high-level opening up to the outside world, standing at a new high, what is the prospect of China's foreign trade? What are the new international cooperation and competitive advantages? How to promote high-quality development? Journalists are on a tour.

Technology R&D drive --

Cultivate innovation capacity and cultivate new advantages

The market condition is good, the foreign trade order is busy. Even during the Spring Festival holiday, the production line of Suzhou Saiwu Application Technology Co., Ltd. operates more than 80% of the time. "Orders are coming in and out, and the guys are very motivated." Wu Xiaoping, chairman of the company, said with a smile.

As the world's leading enterprise in the field of photovoltaic back panels, at the beginning of last year, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, SAV's overseas market demand shrank and its export declined.

How to do? Expand new customers in Southeast Asia, Japan and other regions; Sending epidemic prevention materials for foreign customers, providing technical services via video, and consolidating cooperative relations... A package of measures to stabilize market share in a timely manner. "For companies, it is more important to practice their internal skills, and technological innovation is their core competitiveness." Wu Xiaoping said.

Market research is the first step. India, Southeast Asia, Africa and other areas of the roof corrugated steel more, can only use light photovoltaic products. A high strength, good toughness, strong corrosion resistance of the light transparent back, once launched, soon occupy a large market.

Research and development investment is indispensable. "Despite its appearance, with it, the key components of domestic frequency conversion air conditioning have made a breakthrough." In the exhibition hall, Deng Jianbo, the research and development director of the company, picked up a small light yellow component the size of a coin and felt that it took 5 years, tens of thousands of experiments and tens of millions of yuan to successfully develop the cooling electric subgrade board for the semiconductor module of IGBT frequency converter.

Professionals are key. The company's research and development staff has grown from 70 to more than 100 in 2020 and will increase to 150 this year. Not long ago, the company set up a craftsman school, with regular classes, to foster a batch of "multi-skilled workers" who can carry a large beam.

Not limited to photovoltaic materials enterprises, SIV is transforming into a high-tech enterprise of polymer materials, applying its products to new energy vehicles, high-speed rail, 5G communication and other fields. "We will also set up research and development centers overseas to boost exports through technological innovation." Wu Xiaoping said.

"Innovation is the driving force for high-quality trade development and the key to raising the value added level of the commodity value chain." Wang Xiaohong, deputy director of the information department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said quality and structural issues are still the main contradictions in the development of China's foreign trade. In the face of rising factor costs, declining traditional comparative advantages and low added value of export commodities, we need to accelerate the shift of foreign trade growth from factor driven to innovation-driven.

Wang Xiaohong suggested that, on the one hand, we should strengthen independent research and development capabilities and enterprises' comprehensive innovation capabilities. Leading by technological innovation, we should comprehensively promote product innovation, business format innovation and business model innovation, and strengthen fiscal and tax policies to support enterprises to increase R&D investment. On the other hand, we will carry out the cultivation of independent brands, support enterprises to create brands, increase varieties and improve quality, and select a number of well-known brands to focus on cultivation.

Guarantee of China-Europe freight trains --

Unimpeding logistics chains and opening up new markets

A China-Europe freight train carrying 50 freight counters pulls out of the central station at Chengdu International Railway Port. Carrying car parts and power tools, the train will provide machinery for Germany's Bosch Group.

"This year we will send 3,800 containers for the Bosch Group, and we will also send equipment to Mercedes Benz, Honda and others. It is expected that the total value of the company's foreign trade will exceed 4 billion yuan, more than double that of 2020." Chengdu Levante company director Chen Jiangnan said.

The development of Levante is an epitome of the more balanced development of China's foreign trade regions. In 2020, the import and export of foreign trade in the central and western regions will increase by 11%, accounting for 17.5% of the total.

In Chen Jiangnan's view, the booming performance, without the strong support of China-Europe freight trains. "With the China-Europe freight train, our equipment can already be shipped across Europe, providing a strong support for the development of new markets." He introduced that last year, affected by the epidemic, the company's foreign trade business was once blocked. To this end, on the one hand, they sought new suppliers of their products, on the other hand, they began to expand the scope of their foreign trade market.

The construction of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle brought opportunities, the company focused on the advantages of industrial manufacturing in Chongqing, contacted relevant manufacturing enterprises, and provided related machinery and equipment for German companies such as Volkswagen. "Chongqing and Chengdu have different routes for China-Europe freight trains, which makes it easier for us to choose the route to send goods according to our needs." Chen Jiangnan said.

Foreign trade development, logistics first. To stabilize foreign trade, we must first stabilize the global logistics chain.

In 2020, the epidemic will hit the global logistics industry hard, resulting in the suspension of many flights and the closure of ports. As a result, global shipping capacity will be strained, international shipping prices will continue to rise, container supply will fall short of demand and transportation costs will rise. With high efficiency, wide routes, stable all-weather operation and low cost, the China-Europe freight train has become an important bridge and green channel connecting the Eurasian continent. In 2020, the number of China-Europe freight trains set a new high, with 12,406 trains running in the whole year, delivering 1.35 million TEU, up 50% and 56% respectively year-on-year.

"China's foreign trade situation this year remains complex and grim, with both opportunities and challenges." Zhuang Rui, party secretary of the National Institute for Opening up at the University of International Business and Economics, said that with the gradual recovery of global trade and the rising demand for freight, international transportation capacity is still tight. It is necessary to continue to consolidate the foundation for the steady recovery of foreign trade and maintain the continuity, stability and sustainability of rescue policies for enterprises.

The Ministry of Commerce said recently that it is working with the Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission, the General Administration of Customs and other departments to improve the shipping capacity, improve the transport efficiency of China-Europe freight trains, increase the supply of containers, improve trade facilitation and other efforts to promote the smooth operation of international logistics.

The policy is intensified, the foreign trade main body also grabs the opportunity. "We carried out low-frequency vibration tests on trains to verify the feasibility of importing semiconductors by rail." Chen Jiangnan said that this year intends to develop semiconductor import trade through the China-Europe freight train. In March, the 30,000 square meter warehouse rented by the company in Chengdu International Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone will also be put into use, which can store more equipment, ensure logistics efficiency and win more foreign trade orders for enterprises.

Cross-border e-commerce power --

Expand new business forms and stimulate new growth drivers

"Before May last year, corporate orders were off a cliff and there was almost no new growth." Speaking of the state of foreign trade last year, Ningbo Jiaze Kitchenware Co., Ltd. General Manager Ma Chuanjun repeatedly shook his head.

As the epidemic spread around the world and logistics and transaction costs rose, small and medium-sized foreign trade business owners like Ma Chuanjun, who had been selling offline, lost their minds.

Moving into cross-border e-commerce is a good way to go. But platform, sales, warehousing, after-sales and so on all ignorant, Ma Chuanjun did not know how to start.

In June last year, under the guidance of Ningbo Municipal Government, 22 enterprises and universities jointly launched the China (Ningbo) Cross-border E-commerce Overseas Alliance, hoping to gather competitive resources and help small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises to avoid detour and reduce operating costs through platform sharing.

Hearing the preparation of the cross-border electricity business alliance, Ma Chuanjun quickly signed up. "The alliance integrates the resources of various governing units and provides us with an online sales platform, so we can clearly see where our products are selling and which ones are selling well." "In the past, we were relatively slow to respond to overseas consumption trends," said Ma Chuanjun. "Now we have to update our products almost every two to three months, and we are more confident in facing overseas competition." Plus goods are stored at the overseas warehouse of director unit, on dispatch time limit, be equivalent to stand at the same starting line with foreign seller.

"The alliance has formed a third-party platform sales, overseas warehouse offline distribution, enterprises overseas independent station sales and other marketing models." Wu Wei, chairman of TAG Heuer Group, the founding member of the alliance, said that through the integration of customs clearance, foreign exchange settlement, tax refund, logistics, cross-border logistics general contract, cross-border e-commerce shop shop operation and other functions, it can provide complete supply chain services for foreign trade manufacturing enterprises to transform into cross-border e-commerce.

Taking the "tailwind" of cross-border e-commerce, small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises have a new export model. According to the statistics of Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce, since the establishment of the Alliance six months ago, the total export volume has been about 24 billion yuan, with obvious results. This year, the alliance aims at high-quality "cluster" overseas, and plans to drive the export of foreign trade to exceed 30 billion yuan and serve 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 2020, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan, up 31.1 percent, becoming an important force for stabilizing foreign trade. Cross-border e-commerce and other new forms of foreign trade are booming, but e-commerce platforms, logistics, payment, warehousing, after-sales and other supporting facilities still need to keep pace.

"The government and enterprises should jointly promote the efficient and standardized development of cross-border e-commerce, strengthen supervision and do a good job in traceability." Ma Shuzhong, dean of China Digital Trade Research Institute at Zhejiang University, said that the comprehensive service system of cross-border e-commerce should be improved to give full play to the advantages of the new business form. Cross-border e-commerce enterprises should also pay attention to the global political, economic, health and other trends to improve their ability to resist risks.

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