China's Imports and Exports Fall 24.3% in First Four Months of 2009

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--From January to April 2009, China's accumulated imports and exports totaled $599.41 billion, down 24.3% year over year. Exports totaled $337.42 billion, down 20.5%, and imports totaled $261.99 billion, down 28.17%. A trade surplus of $75.43 billion was registered, an increase of 32.4% year over year, the General Customs Administration of China announced on May 12.

Click on the image at right for a list of China's imports by commodity.

Imports and exports in April totaled $170.73 billion, down 22.8%. Exports made up $91.94 billion, down 22.6%, and imports totaled $78.8 billion, down 23%. A trade surplus of $18.56 billion was registered, up 41.2% year over year. Based on the average value per working day, imports and exports rose 10.4% compared with March: Imports rose 15.1%, and exports rose 6.9%.

Trade

General trade dropped 21.3% year over year to $84.37 billion. Processing trade totaled $68.17 billion, down 24.8% year over year. Compared with March, the growth in general trade and processing trade was up 12.3% and 8.3%, respectively.

In April, imports of primary products totaled $21.55 billion, down 32.4% year over year, but up 16.6% over March. Iron ore imports totaled 57 million metric tons, up 33.2% year over year and 14.7% compared with March. Crude oil imports totaled 16.17 million metric tons, up 13.6% year over year but 3.7% over March.

The export of major labor-intensive products maintained monthly growth in April. The export of garments and accessories reached $7.37 billion, an increase of 3.9% over March. Exports of mechanical and electrical products fell 22.2% year over year to $54.47 billion; however, it was an increase of 6.1% over the previous month.

Regions

1) European Union: Bilateral trade totaled $27.3 billion, down 24.1% year over year but up 8.1% over March.

2) United States: Bilateral trade totaled $23.76 billion, down 17.1% year over year but up 9.9% over March.

3) Japan: Bilateral trade totaled $18.45 billion, down 23.8% year over year but up 10.3% over March.

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