Guangdong's foreign imports on sharp upward track

The import volume of Guangdong rose steadily in the first quarter of the year, playing a big part in supporting the province's economic growth, a senior customs officer said.

Guangdong, China's biggest foreign trader, reached an import volume of 731.14 billion yuan ($102.98 billion) in the first three months — up by 17.6 percent year-on-year, Zhang Ke, deputy director of Guangdong Customs said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The province, a global production base, imported integrated circuits worth 247.38 billion yuan ($34.84 billion), automatic data processing equipment and components valued at 38.09 billion yuan and semiconductor manufacturing equipment valued at 12.47 billion yuan — year-on-year increases of 19.3 percent, 102.1 percent, and 223.8 percent respectively.

Meanwhile the province's import volume of important raw materials grew substantially — such as copper ore (up by a factor of 7.9 times), coal (up 57.3 percent) and crude oil (up 64.9 percent), Zhang said.

The good performance on imports helped Guangdong achieve a foreign trade volume of 2.04 trillion yuan between January and March, up by 12 percent year-on-year and reaching a record high, Zhang said.

Guangdong's foreign trade volume represented 20.1 percent of China's total in the first three months.

Its exports increased by 9 percent year-on-year to hit 1.31 trillion yuan in Q1, he said.

Guangdong's exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 850.87 billion yuan in Q1, a year-on-year increase of 6.4 percent and accounting for 65.1 percent of the province's total export value. A number of categories were up —electronic components (up 18.1 percent), automatic data processing equipment and components (up 10.2 percent), household appliances (up 14.2 percent) and mobile phones (up 12.3 percent).

Exports of high-end equipment, including ships, machine tools and aircraft increased by 55.1 percent, 32 percent and 78 percent respectively, Zhang said.

Guangdong kept up foreign trade growth with its major trading partners in the first quarter, with foreign trade volume with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations coming to 324.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent.

Guangdong's foreign trade with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, European Union, United States and Taiwan island also enjoyed year-on-year growth — 14.1 percent, 3.7 percent, 8 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively — in the first quarter.

ASEAN, Hong Kong, the European Union, the United States and Taiwan are regularly the top five trading partners of Guangdong province.

Guangdong's imports and exports with the countries and regions involved in China's Belt and Road Initiative increased year-on-year by 8.5 percent, and the foreign trade with RCEP member countries grew year-on-year by 7.9 percent in the first quarter, Zhang added.

Peng Yi'an contributed to this story.