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China Export Data Suggest West’s Recovery Remains Tepid
Export Growth Weakens in December, Highlighting Challenges

China Export Data Suggest West’s Recovery Remains Tepid - Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com


China's export growth weakened in December, casting doubt on a hoped-for recovery in demand from the U.S. and Europe.

By Richard Silk

BN-BB033_ctrade_G_20140109223004.jpg

In this Dec. 10, 2013, photo, trucks carry containers that were unloaded from a ship at a port in Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province.

Associated Press
BEIJING—China’s export growth weakened in December, casting doubt on a hoped-for recovery in demand from the U.S. and Europe.

Exports in December were up just 4.3% compared with the same month a year earlier, down from a much stronger 12.7% year-over-year rise in November, according to customs data released on Friday.

China’s traditionally important export sector faces a range of challenges, from higher labor and land costs to an appreciating currency that eats into its competitiveness..

As the U.S. and Europe regain economic momentum, experts expect China to benefit from better export demand. But the slow pace of improvement in December was a letdown for many.

“The lift from developed markets has not been as strong as expected,” said Junwei Sun, an economist at HSBC Holdings PLC. “This year might be a better year [for exporters], but the pace of improvement could be very modest.”

The poor export growth may in part be due to more than trade flows. China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in December it was tightening supervision of trade financing to stop speculative “hot money” flows from being disguised as trade. That likely dragged down an already weak growth number, Ms. Sun said Friday.

Official data showed a jump in December 2012 that many economists attributed to capital flows misreported as trade.

By contrast, the latest import figures were strong, beating forecasts with an 8.3% year-over-year rise in December, up from 5.3% in November. They were boosted by high raw-material shipments. China brought in 6.33 million barrels a day of crude oil in December, a record, and copper, iron ore and plastic imports were up strongly, too. That could indicate that companies are building up inventories again after running them down earlier in the year, said Shuang Ding, an economist at Citigroup, but he cautioned that the trend may not last long.

“I don’t think this represents a sustained restocking across the economy,” he said. “Domestic demand remains quite sluggish.”

Still, strong imports meant that the country’s trade surplus—the difference between exports and imports—narrowed to $25.6 billion, from $33.8 billion the previous month. The decline relieves a source of potential tension with the U.S., where some politicians worry that China keeps its currency too cheap, benefiting its exporters but hitting China’s potential as a market for U.S. goods.

Exports totaled $2.21 trillion for the year as a whole, up 7.9% from 2012, while imports rose 7.3% to $1.95 trillion. Total trade grew 7.6% in 2013, narrowly missing the official target of 8% trade growth.

China’s Customs Administration predicts that the country’s trade will improve compared with 2013 as demand from the West improves.

“China’s foreign trade will continue to grow steadily as long as there are no unexpected global or domestic events this year,” said customs spokesman Zheng Yuesheng at a press briefing where the information was released.

Bulk commodity prices will likely continue to stay at a low level, which will help lower China imports costs and boost the competitiveness of Chinese exports, Mr. Zheng added.

–Yajun Zhang contributed to this article.
 
China surpasses US as world's largest trading nation




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China has overtaken the US in annual trade in goods, according to official figures. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP





Beijing describes 2013 figures as 'a landmark milestone' as annual trade in goods passes the $4tn mark for the first time



China became the world's largest trading nation in 2013, overtaking the US in what Beijing described as "a landmark milestone" for the country.


China's annual trade in goods passed the $4tn (£2.4tn) mark for the first time last year according to official data, after exports from the world's second largest economy rose 7.9% to $2.21tn and imports rose 7.3% to $1.95tn.


As a result total trade rose 7.6% over the year to $4.16tn. The US is yet to publish its 2013 trade figures, but with trade totalling $3.5tn in the first 11 months of the year, it is unlikely to beat China.


The shift in the trading pecking order reflected China's rising global dominance, despite a slowdown in economic growth last year.


Zheng Yuesheng, a spokesman for China's customs administration, said: "It is very likely that China overtook the US to become the world's largest trading country in goods in 2013 for the first time. This is a landmark milestone for our nation's foreign trade development."


China had already become the world's largest exporter of goods in 2009.


The country's trade surplus rose 12.8% in 2013 to almost $260bn, but the December surplus of $25.6bn was down 17.4% and fell short of the $31.15bn predicted by economists in a Reuters poll.


Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG, described the December figure as "a high-quality miss once dissected".


"Imports were up 8.3%, easily surpassing expectations of 5% and showing the second highest nominal reading ever recorded. While exports missed estimates at +4.3% (as opposed to the expected +5%), the value of exports was the highest ever recorded."


There have been concerns in recent months over the accuracy of the country's trade data, with speculation that some Chinese companies have overstated their exports to circumvent controls on cross-border transactions and bring more cash into the country.


However analysts said a recent clampdown on such activity was likely to result in more accurate data. In May last year China's foreign exchange regulator, the state administration of foreign exchange, announced plans to more closely scrutinise exports paperwork and impose tougher penalties where deals had been faked.


Sun Junwei, China economist at HSBC in Beijing, said: "Recent measures could be working to squeeze out these fake trade activities. We actually think these activities would be relatively contained this year compared with last year."



SOURCE:


THE GUARDIAN



China surpasses US as world's largest trading nation | Business | The Guardian
 
BEIJING: The Bank of China (BOC) has launched a bond worth 2.5 billion yuan ($413 million) in London as part of its attempts to internationalize the Chinese currency. This is the first such Chinese move in the West.

The Chinese bonds would be listed on the London Stock Exchange and funds raised would be retained in London and used to further develop offshore Chinese currency market and trade between China and the UK, BOC said after launching the issue on Friday.

China had earlier tried to increase yuan's usage in Asia and Africa. Beijing has so far concentrated on currency swap agreements and trade settlements to internationalize its currency in poorer countries that get Chinese financial aid and loans.

Bank of China launches 2.5 billion yuan bond in London - The Times of India
 
Venture Capital: How Chinese Yuan has overtaken Euro

IT says that as China becoming the biggest trader in the world,in future trade China would like to use Yuan instead of other currencies,which is more controllable and China can print as much as she wants...interesting idea..
 
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Geely, Volvo break ground on new Taizhou production site

2014-01-14

wantchinatimes.com

Geely, a leading Chinese auto brand, broke ground on a new production base in the coastal economic technology and development zone in Taizhou city of Zhejiang province, marking a milestone in the company's development. A replacement for the company's existing production base in the Luqiang district of Taizhou, the project calls for investment of 12.1 billion yuan (US$2 billion) and boasts annual capacity of 200,000 passenger cars. The new base will accommodate production facilities for both finished cars and key components and parts and will double as the company's R&D center. It will mainly turn out the V, a next-generation small car model jointly developed by Geely and Volvo, according to the Beijing-based Economic Observer.

Volvo will also contribute to the investment for the project, which will become the automaker's third production base in China, on top of the factories in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Daqing in Heilongjiang province. Following the inauguration of the European R&D center of Geely one year ago, the new production base is a new fruit of the integration of Geely and Volvo, the latter acquired by the Chinese automaker in 2009.

The project represents a major step forward for Li Shufu, Geely chairman, in realizing his dream of elevating the status of Volvo in the Chinese market to a similar level as that of Audi, as well as being able to rival Benz and BMW on the global market. Li envisions annual sales of 600,000 Volvo cars in China, with a capacity of 20 million cars, as Volvo sold 300,000 cars in Europe, with a capacity of 12 million cars, in 2013.
 
CHINA’S TRADE CROSSED $4 TN IN 2013, INDIA STILL WAY BEHIND
Saturday, 11 January 2014 | PNS | New Delhi
World’s two biggest countries in terms of population, China and India on Friday posted their respective trade figures. The two countries together hold nearly 36.79 per cent of the world’s population with China being the most populated country of the world. But, despite having higher requirements, China continues to be in trade surplus while India is still trying to tackle deficit.

Indeed China is a bigger economy but it is shocking to see how far behind we are still lagging. According to the December trade numbers released by Chinese authorities, country’s total trade rose by 6.2 per cent to $ 389.8 billion. China’s net exports for the same period stood at $ 207.7 billion with a rise of 4.3 per cent. Imports on the other hand grew by 8.3 per cent to $ 182.1 billion. Due to the rise in country’s imports, China’s surplus fell sharply by 17.4 per cent to $ 25.6 billion, Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs said.

On the other hand, India’s trade data had only one thing to cheer for. Due to the restrains imposed by the Government on gold imports, country’s imports fell and in turn reducing the deficit. Total trade of the country grew by 7.6 per cent to $ 62.7 billion during December. Total exports expanded marginally by 3.49 per cent to $ 26.3 billion while imports registered a sharp fall of 15.25 per cent to $ 36.4 billion.

Supported by a steep decline in imports, country’s deficit narrowed to $ 10.1 billion in December against the trade gap of $ 9.21 billion In November. Country’s imports reduced as gold and silver imports in December dropped to $ 1.77 billion from $5.6 billion in the same month a year ago, although they were higher than $1.05 billion in November.

It the same story if the trade figures of the two countries for the period of January- December are compared. While China’s total trade crossed the $ 4 trillion mark, India’s net trade stood at $ 781.24 billion approximately. China posted net exports of $ 2.21 trillion during January- December last year while imports stood at $ 1.95 trillion of the same period. In the same time period, India reported net exports of $ 313 billion and imports of $468.24 billion approximately.

While China’s trade surplus expanded to $ 259.75 billion, India posted a trade deficit of $ 155.24 billion. Thus apart from being similar in the population scale, Chinese economy has successfully tackled the overflow of population and maintained the economy in surplus by effectively utilising all the resources it has.

For India, things are still lagging way behind and even after a slid in imports, trade situation has not improved. Previously, the Government kept blaming the increase in gold imports as the root cause of rise in deficit and this time the blame has been shifted to falling shipments of petroleum products which have dented the December export figures which have fallen to their six- month lows.

Petroleum exports, which contribute significantly to the country’s trade basket, declined 16 per cent last month to $4.8 billion. On the other hand, exports of all major commodities, including engineering goods, ready-made garments, chemicals, cotton yarn, rice and plastic, have shown considerable growth during December.

Voicing their concerns towards overall trade situation of the country, industry urged the Government to act quickly and help in revive country’s exports. Rafeeq Ahmed, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said, “Efforts are required to keep export growth in double-digits. We are not happy with a modest growth of 3.49 per cent in exports in December.” Engineering Export Promotion Council’s Chairman, Snupam Shah further added, “The Government should commit itself to help exporters so that they can further improve the situation and take the export growth higher.”

China’s trade crossed $4 tn in 2013, India still way behind
 
Huawei now the world’s third latest smartphone manufacturer
by Luke Johnson 06 January 2014
Huawei has seen a meteoritic rise to prominence in the smartphone scene in recent years, with the Chinese company confirming it is now the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer.

Speaking during its CES 2014
press conference, the budget handset manufacturer announced that sales trackers now have it marked out as having entered the podium positions of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers.

Lagging behind the powerhouse likes of Samsung and Apple only, Huawei has now overtaken former giants such as Nokia and BlackBerry in global handset sales.

“We are now the number three smartphone manufacturer in the world,” Colin Giles, the Executive Vice President of the Huawei Consumer Business Group said.

He went on to reveal that the company shifted a staggering 52 million smartphones during 2013, up on just 32 million handsets the year before.

Breaking down the company’s 2013 sales, Huawei showed that its saw dramatic quarter over quarter rises, jumping from 10 million Q1 sales up to a hefty 17.5 million handset sales in Q4.

With the likes of the Huawei Ascend P6 and Huawei Ascend Mate having seen the Chinese maker edge closer to the industry’s big players in 2013, Giles has suggested that improving brand awareness has played a major role in increasing sales.

“Huawei’s brand awareness between 2012 and 2013 increased by over 100 per cent,” he stated.

Having risen to become the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, Huawei has started 2014 in strong fashion, officially unveiling the new Huawei Ascend Mate 2.
 
In our media we only focus on our own performance versus our performance of last year, last month and our target.
Hardly another nation is mentioned for a comparison
 

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