Guangdong’s foreign trade rises by 13.8% in first half of 2024

The robust recovery of Guangdong's foreign trade has continued to strengthen since the beginning of 2024. Statistics from the Guangdong Sub-Administration of the GACC show that in the first half of the year, Guangdong's total foreign trade imports and exports reached 4.37 trillion RMB, marking a new high for the same period in history and surpassing last year's figure by 13.8%. This growth rate is 7.7 percentage points higher than the national average, accounting for 20.6% of China's total foreign trade.

Export performance was particularly strong, totaling 2.85 trillion RMB, an increase of 12.1% year-on-year. Imports, on the other hand, surged 17.1% to 1.52 trillion RMB.

Key export commodities from Guangdong witnessed rapid growth during the period. Electrical and mechanical products, accounting for 64.4% of the province's total exports, grew by 9.9%, with notable increases in automatic data processing equipment and components (14.6%), household appliances (16.7%), and integrated circuits (26.3%). Shipping, electric passenger vehicles, and containers also surged, recording growth rates of 70.7%, 78.3%, and 104% respectively. Labor-intensive products increased by 2.4%, contributing 14.1% to total exports, while steel exports soared by 4.4 times to 89.86 billion RMB.

The trade structure in Guangdong continued to improve. In the first six months, general trade accounted for 59.6% of the province's total foreign trade, up 1.6 percentage points from the same period last year, totaling 2.61 trillion RMB and growing by 16.9%. Processing trade, meanwhile, grew 2.2% to 907.01 billion RMB, accounting for 20.8% of the total, while bonded logistics trade increased 25.1% to 812.52 billion RMB, making up 18.6% of the total.

Private enterprises in Guangdong demonstrated robust growth, with their imports and exports reaching 2.8 trillion RMB, up 21.3% and outpacing the overall growth rate of the province by 7.5 percentage points. They contributed 64% of the province's total foreign trade. Foreign-invested enterprises and state-owned enterprises also contributed significantly, with imports and exports of 1.34 trillion RMB (up 2.1%) and 220.95 billion RMB (up 2.2%) respectively, accounting for 30.7% and 5.1% of the total.

Guangdong's top five trading partners during the first half of the year were ASEAN, Hong Kong SAR, the United States, the European Union (EU), and China's Taiwan Province, with trade volumes growing by 12.3%, 16.9%, 10.6%, 7.1%, and 17.2% respectively. Trade with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries amounted to 1.64 trillion RMB, up 12%, while trade with other participating countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) reached 1.24 trillion RMB, increasing by 12.5%.

Imports of electrical and mechanical products in Guangdong maintained double-digit growth, surging 23.6% to account for 64.2% of the province's total imports. Notably, imports of integrated circuits reached 526.98 billion RMB, up 21.3%; automatic data processing equipment and components increased by 6.9% to 105.58 billion RMB; and semiconductor manufacturing equipment surged 2.4 times to 29.5 billion RMB. Energy imports, including coal, crude oil, and natural gas, totaled 49.602 million tons, up 38.9% in volume and 17.6% in value to 68.88 billion RMB.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, the Guangdong Sub-Administration of the GACC points out that Guangdong's foreign trade will still face unstable and uncertain factors, but it is expected that the overall development will continue to maintain a good momentum under the support of favorable factors such as the continuous recovery of external demands, the release of dividends from foreign trade support policies, and the increase in enterprise orders.