Graph: China's growing trade surplus

The value of goods exported by China in July rose 38.1 percent to 145.5 billion US dollars from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Tuesday.

The value of goods exported in July were the highest ever recorded.

The total value of Chinese trade in July climbed 30.8 percent to 262.3 billion US dollars from a year earlier.

This pushed the value of Chinese trade over the first seven months of this year up to 1.61 trillion US dollars, up 40.9 percent from a year earlier. Exports were up 35.6 percent to 850.49 billion US dollars over the same period and imports rose 47.2 percent to 766.56 trillion US dollars.

This means that China registered a trade surplus of 83.93 billion US dollars for the first seven months of the year and a surplus of 28.7 billion US dollars for the month of July.

Electronics and mechanical devices made up a large share of the country’s exports.

The GAC said exports of electronics and mechanical devices in the first seven months grew 36.2 percent to 500.6 billion US dollars, which accounted for 58.9 percent of the country’s total exports in terms of dollar value.

At the same time, clothing exports rose 17.4 percent to 66.8 billion US dollars, up from the 16 per cent growth rate registered during the first six months of the year.

In addition, shoe exports grew 23.6 percent to 19.4 billion US dollars, up 2.8 percentage points from the rate achieved in the first half of the year.

Toy exports gained 30 percent to 4.75 billion US dollars, down from the 30.5 per cent growth witnessed in the first six months of 2010.

In terms of imports, China imported 360 million tons of iron ore at an average price of 116 US dollars per ton in the first seven months.

China also imported 30.76 million tons of soybeans at an average price of 439 US dollars per ton.

The GAC also provided data on the amount of trade between China and its main trade partners.

In the first seven months, the total value of trade between China and the EU reached 263.1 billion US dollars, up 36.6 percent from a year earlier while the total value of trade between China and the US reached 207.2 billion US dollars, up 30.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The value of trade between China and Japan grew by 34.9 percent to 161.7 billion US dollars which was only slightly more than the 161 billion US dollars of Chinese trade with the countries that make up ASEAN.

The GAC report also noted that Brazil had overtaken Russia to become China’s tenth largest trade partner.

In the first seven months, the total value of trade between China and Brazil grew 54.6 percent to 32.5 billion US dollars.

Links and Sources
General Administration of Customs: 7月份出口值及進(jìn)出口總值再創(chuàng)新高 (Chinese)