Ningbo s exports fell by 0.7% in the second quarter

Ningbo's exports fell by 10.7% in the second quarter

Exports dominate Ningbo's foreign trade, whose market shares account for more than 70%. Exports performance directly affects the overall operation of foreign trade. In the first quarter, the amount of exports totaled 96.71 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 14.3%. However, the amount of exports in the second quarter totaled 106.58 billion yuan, down 10.7% year-on-year. Under these influence, the overall foreign trade of Ningbo has been weak in the first half year, with growth in imports and exports slipping from positive in the first quarter to negative in the second.

Influenced by the appreciation of RMB, exports growth in traditional labor-intensive products fell. In the first half year, Ningbo exported a total amount of 55.51 billion yuan in six types of commodities including apparel and textiles, plastic products, toys, furniture, bags and shoes, down 3.4% year-on-year. According to experts from Ningbo Municipal Commission of Commerce, due to the fierce competition and low concentration in traditional labor-intensive industry, the average profit of exports only reaches 3% to 5%. Every one percentage point appreciation of the RMB yuan will bring 1.5% decrease in China's foreign trade exports. In the first half of 2015, the euro and the yen have gained approximately 21% and 18% respectively against the yuan compared to the same period of 2014. The fluctuation of foreign exchange rate forced foreign clients to be more cautious when placing an order, which is the main cause of the continuous decline in foreign trade exports.

Meantime, insufficient demand and excess capacity lead to continuous decline in export delivery value of industrial products. From January to June, the export delivery value of industries above a designated scale amounted to136.2 billion yuan with a year-on-year decrease of 5.2%. The decline was enlarged by 5.4 percentage points compared to that of first quarter.

In addition, the geopolitical tensions disrupted some parts of exports. Since the beginning of 2015, the risk of exporting to Russia has been increased due to the Ukraine conflict. Exports from Ningbo to Russia in the first five months have declined 30% compared to the same period of last year.

From 16.7% decline to 5% negative growth

Since 2014, influenced by macro-economic control, imports have always been a stumbling block to foreign trade increase. However, things turn different in 2015. Statistics shows that the pace of decline narrowed quarter by quarter. Imports in the first quarter amounted to 41.84 billion yuan, down 16.7% year-on-year. Imports in the second quarter amounted to 45.23 billion yuan, down 5% year-on-year. The decline rate was 11.2 percentage points lower than first quarter.

Ningbo is an important distributing centre of major commodities in China. Coal, iron ore, petroleum and other commodities imports rank forefront in china. In the first half of 2015, mechanical and electrical products, scrap metal and iron ore imports reached 15.06, 6.68 and 6.28 billion yuan respectively, down 16.4%, 21.1% and 39.4% year-on-year respectively. Ningbo's imports fell 9% as a whole.

It should be noted that thanks to the import goods market built several years ago and the national cross-border e-commerce pilot, cross-border e-commerce which mainly focuses on consumer goods grows at a rapid rate. From January to June, cross-border e-commerce imports in Ningbo drew 1.05 billion yuan, among which the Bonded Area drew 846 million yuan, an increase of 42 times than the same period of last year. Seen from the money transacted, cross-border trade only makes up less than one forty of the total import of Ningbo. However, its growth potential is worth expecting. In June, NetEase, a heavyweight of domestic e-commerce, decided to set its cross-border e-commerce base in Ningbo Bonded Area. If everything goes well, a cross-border industrial chain worth tens of billions of yuan will be developed in no less than five years.

Confidence is worth more than gold

For a city with a good natural port, developing foreign trade is always an option. Since the reform and opening up, Ningbo has always been relying on foreign trade and has been given the name of City of Foreign Trade and one of the Top Ten Foreign Trade Cities . Seen from the perspective of employment, one out of every three people in Ningbo is engaged in foreign trade or related work at present.

Though the foreign trade situation is not optimistic, Ningbo foreign trade still remains a mainstay in the national economy. Strong foreign trade will bring strong industries and port business. said Wang Jianhou, the vice mayor. If Ningbo wants to become a big city in China, it has to rely on its open economy, in which the strongest and most competitive part is foreign trade.

LINK:	http://en.nbwh.gov.cn/art/2015/7/31/art_1325_73116.html...
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