China’s exports rose last month, the first increase since April, while imports fell, customs data released yesterday showed.
Exports rose 0.5 percent from a year earlier to US$291.9 billion, a sign that demand might be picking up after months of decline.
However, imports fell 0.6 percent to US$223.5 billion after they climbed 3 percent in October.
Photo: AFP
China has been grappling with sluggish foreign trade this year amid slack global demand and a stalled recovery, despite the country’s reopening after its COVID-19 controls were lifted late last year.
The trade surplus of US$68.4 billion was up 21 percent compared with October’s US$56.5 billion.
Some economists said they doubt the rise, fueled mainly by exports of vehicles and ships, would continue for long.
“Looking forward, the resilience of exports is unlikely to last. The recent strength is at least partly fueled by exporters slashing prices to gain market share,” Capital Economics economist Huang Zichun (黃子春) said in a note, describing the reduction of prices as “unsustainable.”
“Without the support of price cuts, exports are unlikely to defy the slowdown in growth among China’s major trading partners, which we expect to continue in the first half of next year,” Huang said.
Trade with Japan, Southeast Asian countries, the EU and the US has declined this year.
Exports to the US and the EU have fallen by more than 10 percent so far this year from the same period last year, while those to Russia surged 50 percent, the official data showed.
Imports of steel plunged 27 percent so far this year as the property downturn deepened, while chips declined by 16.5 percent.
Demand for Chinese exports has been weak since the US Federal Reserve, and central banks in Europe and Asia began raising interest rates last year to cool inflation that was at multi-decade highs.
“It is unclear if exports can contribute as a growth pillar into next year,” Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd (保銀私募基金管理) chief economist Zhang Zhiwei (張智威) said. “The European and US economies are cooling. China still needs to depend on the domestic demand as the main driver for growth in 2024.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
RSS