Exports of high-end, intelligent and environment-friendly products greatly drove the growth of China's foreign trade in the first five months of 2024, official data showed. The economically developed Zhejiang Province in east China has been leading the country in machine tool exports, and the province's export volume and value for machine tools increased by 8 percent and 24.9 percent year on year respectively in the January-May period.
Presently, a machine tool manufacturer in Taizhou City of the province is running its multiple production lines at full capacity to keep up with a surge of orders from Malaysia.
"We keep an annual growth rate of over 20 in sales and have successfully expanded into various emerging markets such as Malaysia, Türkiye, India and Thailand," said Lin Zongsheng, head of the company.
Driven by enhanced independent research and development capabilities and an international outlook, more Chinese manufacturing companies are now focusing on jointly cultivating emerging markets in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and accelerating their overseas market development. Customs statistics show that in the first five months, products with high technology content and value added accounted for nearly 60 percent of China's total exports. The exports of ships, electric vehicles and household appliances surged by 100.1 percent, 26.3 percent and 17.8 percent year on year respectively during this period.
Labor-intensive industries are also a traditional stronghold in the province, ranking the first in the country since 2019.
Nationwide, the share of labor-intensive products has also jumped from 24.6 percent in 2019 to 27.9 percent in the first five months.
A technology company in the province, which used to focus on the production and export of electromechanical parts, has shifted to making smart furniture such as automatically adjustable office desks as its brand has been recognized by over 100 countries and regions. Last year, the company began to lay the groundwork to expand its international footprint in the finished furniture market.
In the first five months, Zhejiang's exports to BRI countries reached 51.4 percent, an increase of 4.2 percentage points from 2019. In particular, exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Latin America, Africa, Central and East Europe and other markets have increased significantly.
As China continues to advance high-level opening-up, a series of support policies and measures have been rolled out to help the country's vast foreign trade operators to increase the volume and raise the quality of exports.
At an electrical tool manufacturer in east China's Jiangsu Province neighboring Zhejiang, the production lines are working at full capacity, processing, assembling and packaging the products, which will be shipped to markets around the world as soon as they roll off the production lines.
"Our overseas marketing network for electrical tools now covers over 60 countries and regions including Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America. During the first five months of this year, our company's exports to Belt and Road Initiative partner countries reached 166 million yuan (about 22.84 million U.S. dollars), up 12.22 percent year on year," said Shi Xinping, general manager of the company.
Customs statistics also show that from January to May, the number of China's foreign trade enterprises with import and export records increased by 8.7 percent year on year. In particular, the number of private enterprises in this category increased by 10.1 percent, with their import and export value rising by 11.5 percent, and with the proportion of their imports and exports in the overall foreign trade of China up by 2.6 percentage points to 54.7 percent over the same period of last year.
Exports of high-end, intelligent, green products drive growth of China's foreign trade
