BEIJING: China’s foreign trade dropped 9.8 percent on a year-on-year basis to 1.88 trillion yuan ($288 billion) in January, while exports dropped 6.6 percent from the same month last year and imports declined 14.4 percent, customs data showed on Monday.
Monthly foreign trade surplus widened to 406.2 billion yuan in January from 382 billion yuan a month earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs data.
“The weak manufacturing activities and a bearish housing market have caused domestic demand for commodities, including refined oil, industrial metals and plastics, to decline,” said Zhao Zhongxiu, a trade professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
Zhao said the trade surplus, combined with a downturn in exports and imports, complicates the country’s ongoing effort to readjust industrial structure.
“The era of fast trade growth that China experienced in the past three decades may be gone,” Zhao said. “As a large number of factories will start their operations after the Spring Festival period, the country’s foreign trade is likely to rebound during the second quarter of this year.”
In addition, developed nations are revitalizing their export sectors through reindustrialization and trade protection policies.
In the past half decade, China has also been losing its advantages — including skilled labor, sound infrastructure and industrial facilities — as many industries and orders move to other markets, such as Southeast Asia and India.
