Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Imports, prices of primary products go up sharply

The latest foreign trade figures from the Customs on Oct. 13 show that China's imports of primary products sped up quickly and prices of those imports were high over the first nine months of the year.

China imported 294.2 billion USD of primary products from January to September, representing a sharp increase of 69.5 percent over the same period of last year. The imports of iron ore reached 350 million tons at an average price of 141.3 USD per ton, rising 22 percent and 77 percent respectively. Crude oil imports grew by 8.8 percent to 140 million tons. The average price was 779 USD a ton, up by 70.5 percent. Refined oil imports stood at 31.28 million tons, rising 16.5 percent. The price roared by 88.8 percent to 840.8 USD per ton. The price of soy bean imports surged by 79.4 percent to 609 USD a ton. An increase of 32.3 percent was seen in soy bean imports which registered 28.7 million tons.

Exports of clothing, shoes and furniture in which China has long enjoyed comparative advantages on the world market slowed down over the first nine months of the year. The 1.8 percent growth of clothing exports which valued 87.08 billion USD is 21.2 percentage points lower than that in the same period of last year. The 15.1 percent rise of shoe exports which were 22.08 billion USD is also 1.7 percentage points slower than the same period of last year.

China's accumulated trade surplus reached 180.9 billion USD in the first nine months, down slightly by 2.6 percent year-on-year.

By People's Daily Online

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