In 2021, China’s foreign trade will grow against the trend, breaking through US $6 trillion for the first time, becoming an important responsibility for the stable operation of the economy. Among the strong foreign trade cities in China, Ningbo has become one of the “trillion yuan clubs” for the first time, and firmly ranks as the “sixth city”. Together with Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Suzhou, Dongguan and Guangzhou, Ningbo has become the mainstay of China’s open economy, reflecting the hard core power of a modern international port city.
Who will compete?
A strong foreign trade city is always strong. Last year, after joining in Ningbo and Guangzhou, China’s foreign trade “trillion club” expanded to seven members. The “seven star chain” composed of them not only ranks and ranks as stable as Mount Tai, but also contributes 40% of the country’s import and export volume.
Shanghai, an international metropolis, is a well deserved “leader” in China’s foreign trade, with the total import and export volume exceeding 4 trillion yuan. The names of “Export Brother” and “Import Brother” are respectively used in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Shenzhen is famous for the export of computers, mobile phones and other electronic products.
Although Suzhou, Dongguan and Ningbo are not the first tier cities, they are closely behind Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing with the strength of coastal manufacturing cities. Among the three cities, Ningbo will lead with 21.6% import and export growth in 2021, and its foreign trade structure is also very different from Suzhou and Dongguan.
At present, general trade accounts for only 40% of the import and export volume in Suzhou and Dongguan, while the remaining 60% are mainly processing trade, bonded logistics import and export and other modes. Foreign funded enterprises are the “main force” of local foreign trade. In contrast, 70% of Ningbo’s import and export volume comes from private enterprises, and the proportion of general trade is close to 90%.
At the end of last century, Suzhou and Dongguan achieved the reputation of “World Factory” by undertaking foreign capital industry transfer. In Ningbo, where the culture of business groups is prevailing, people are more willing to “be their own boss”, seize the dividend of China’s accession to the WTO to “break into the world with thousands of troops”, and form an urban legend that “one in four people is engaged in foreign trade”.
Amongst the top 20 cities in China’s foreign trade in 2021, Xiamen and Qingdao are also outstanding, with the growth rate of foreign trade reaching 27.7% and 32.4% respectively, and both of them have completed the transition from 600 billion yuan to 800 billion yuan, ranking in the top 10. If this growth rate is maintained, Xiamen and Qingdao are expected to become new “trillion cities of foreign trade” this year.
While Tianjin was overtaken by Xiamen, Chengdu was pushed out of the top 10 by Qingdao. Wuxi, a strong foreign trade city, has experienced successive landslides in the past two years and was overtaken by Hangzhou last year. Dalian was overtaken by Xi’an, and the growth rate was only 10.3%, ranking last in the top 20, facing the danger of falling out of the top 20.
Ups and downs of gains and losses
Last year, commodity prices generally rose, driving up the value of imports, which became the main reason for some cities to “counter attack”.
In 2021, the import and export of Xiamen will be almost equal. The import of resource products will expand in an orderly manner. The coal import volume will rank first in the country, while the coal price last year was at a historical high; The import growth of Qingdao reached 40.7%, 48% of which benefited from the rise in the volume and price of iron ore, crude oil and other bulk commodities. There are similar factors behind the import growth of other cities.
However, commodity price fluctuations are cyclical, and it may be difficult to last only by “watching the weather”. Only by constantly improving the business environment for expanding imports, providing services with higher added value, and changing the current situation of “meat and wine go through the intestines” of goods, can we achieve stability.
At present, Ningbo’s imports and exports still present a pattern of “three seven opening”, with the import volume ranking ninth in the country, and there is still room for improvement. In the future, Ningbo will “hand in hand” with Central and Eastern Europe to expand commodity procurement, and build an international oil and gas resource allocation center with the help of the Dongfeng Free Trade Zone to enhance the potential of both scale and quality growth.
From the perspective of exports, China has maintained a stable supply chain during the epidemic period, thus reaping backflow of orders, which has brought benefits to many large manufacturing cities, including Ningbo. Ningbo has maintained its position as the “fifth export city in China”, and surpassed Suzhou, Dongguan and Guangzhou with an export growth rate of 19%, ranking second only to Beijing among the “trillions of foreign trade cities”.
In Ningbo’s economic territory, the port is the “hard core” and industry and trade are the “two wings”. Last year, the acceleration of Ningbo’s export was based on its solid manufacturing foundation and a series of foreign trade model innovations that took the lead in the country, so that Chinese manufacturing could be sold to the world through the Oriental Port.
Ningbo has 63 national “single event champions” in manufacturing industry, ranking first in the country. Most of these low-key and pragmatic “sweeping monks” have export business and have a say in the global market segments. Sunny Optics, Jintian Copper, Bowei Alloy, Jinlang Technology, Jiangfeng Electronics, Blum Orient… are all regular customers of the city’s top 200 foreign trade companies.
Ningbo leads the country in exploring new forms of foreign trade such as cross-border e-commerce and integrated foreign trade platform. Looking at the list of 2021 Zhejiang Provincial Public Overseas Warehouses, Ningbo holds 7 of the only 13 seats, and is opening up the “last mile” of Made in China and Chinese brands connecting overseas consumers with complete cross-border logistics “infrastructure”.
The major export cities represented by Beijing, Chongqing and Hangzhou also achieved export growth of more than 20% relying on industrial characteristics. Last year, the export volume of medical materials and drugs in Beijing reached 104.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.3 times; Chongqing’s notebook computer export exceeded 200 billion yuan, ranking first in China for three consecutive years; Hangzhou aims at digital trade and explores cross-border financial payment
Industry insiders believe that the enthusiasm of China’s export boom last year is expected to continue to the first quarter of this year. However, the spread of the global epidemic, as well as the “three mountains” of high sea freight, raw material prices and exchange rate fluctuations, still pose serious challenges to foreign trade.
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(Contributed by Ningbo Municipal Commission of Commerce)