China’s Trade Surges on Strong Global Demand, Commodity Boom

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China’s Trade Surges on Strong Global Demand, Commodity Boom

Bloomberg News
·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- China’s exports rose more than expected in April as global stimulus fueled demand, while imports jumped on surging commodity prices.

Exports grew 32.3% in dollar terms in April from a year earlier, while imports soared 43.1%, the customs administration said Friday. That left a trade surplus of $42.85 billion for the month. Economists had forecast exports would increase 24.1% while imports would gain 44%.

Global appetite for Chinese goods remained strong in the month, thanks to stimulus packages introduced by developed economies and China’s status as the world’s biggest exporter.

“The export figure clearly reflects a recovering and expanding global economy,” said Hao Zhou, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. “Robust imports and exports also mean that China’s manufacturing industry is still outperforming the services sector to lead the economic rebound.”

The U.S. was the biggest export market last month, accounting for 15.9% of Chinese goods sold abroad. Southeast Asian nations bought 15.6% of exports while the European Union purchased 15.1%.

Soaring commodity prices and the China’s strong recovery helped to boost imports, which grew at the fastest pace since January 2011. The low base from a year ago also helped to underpin the strong growth figures.

At the Communist Party’s Politburo meeting last week, China’s top leaders pledged to accelerate the recovery in domestic demand and reiterated there would be “no sharp turn” on economic policy. That should help support the rebound and import demand in coming months.

Other details:

For a breakdown of commodity imports, click here. While the volume of iron ore imports rose 6.7% in January-April compared with the same period in 2020, the value of shipments surged 82.1%Imports were also boosted by the delivery of 24 aircraft in April; on a year-to-date basis, the value of aircraft imports surged 247% from the same period in 2020In yuan terms, exports rose 22.2% in April from a year earlier, higher than the 12.5% forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey; imports grew 32.2%, below the 33.6% predicted

(Updates with additional details and comment from economist.)

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