Imports Fall by 18% in May, Why Imports and Exports Fall Sharply?

Yesterday, the General Administration of Customs released the import and export data in May of this year. Last month, the import and export value reached 1.97 trillion yuan, down by 9.7%; of which exports reached 1.17 trillion yuan, down by 2.8%. Last month the imports fell unexpectedly sharply, imports amounted to 803.33 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.1%.

Sharp dro in imports caused trade surplus to expand 65%

Because of the sharp dro in imports, China's trade surplus reached 366.8 billion yuan last month, an expansion of 65%. So far, in the first five months of this year, China’s import and export value reached to 9.47 trillion yuan, down by 7.8% over last year, of which exports reached 5.4 trillion yuan, reversing the downward trend in the beginning of this year year, achieving an increase of 0.8%; however, imports fell by 17.2% to 4.07 trillion yuan, which also resulted in 1.33 one trillion yuan of China's trade surplus in the first five months.

Coal, iron ore imports fell significantly, which dragged imports off

For the last month, China's foreign trade imports fell unexpectedly, there are financial institutions noting that this year the most obvious decline appears in imports of coal, iron ore imports also decline largely, dragging down the value of imports, but also showing that the Chinese domestic demand is still weak. According to Customs data, in May China's coal imports fell sharply nearly by 30%, declined by more than 40% year on year. In the first five months of total imports amounted to 83.26 million tons, a substantial reduction of nearly 40% over the same period last year’s total imports. The main reason is the downturn domestic coal market and overcapacity squeeze the imported coal market space. In addition, imported coal’s price advantage loss ia another reason.

Further data shows that this year China’s exports to the United States and ASEAN grew, while the EU is China's largest export region, but in the first five months of this year, China-EU trade value decreased, besides import and export volume of China to Japan also fell. In the first five months, bilateral trade between China and US amounted to 1.34 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.8%, accounting for 14.2% of our total foreign trade. Of that, exports to US reached 969.09 billion yuan, an increase of 8.9%; imports from US 374.22 billion yuan, down 10.2%; trade surplus 594.87 billion yuan, expanding 25.7%. In the last five months, trades with ASEAN totaled 1.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%, 11.9% of China’s total foreign trade. Of that, exports to ASEAN 683.47 billion yuan, an increase of 9.9%; imports from ASEAN 441.87 billion yuan, down 11.3%; ASEAN trade surplus 241.6 billion yuan, expanding 95.2%.

Sino-Japanese trade decreased
And this year, Sino-Japanese trade decreased significantly, whether trade value or imports or exports decline by more than 11%. In the first five months, the trade between Mainland and Hong Kong also declined substantially, of which exports to Hong Kong fell by 9.2%; imports from Hong Kong dropped by 24.1%. (www.chinainout.com)