The General Administration of Customs today released the import and export statistics for January. According to customs statistics, China's import and export value in January this year was 2.17 trillion yuan (equivalent to 345.59 billion U.S. dollars), up 26.7 percent year-on-year after deducting exchange rate factors (the same below). The total value of exports was 1.18 trillion yuan (US $187.37 billion), up by 25%; Imports were 0.99 trillion yuan (US $158.22 billion), up by 28.8 percent; And the trade surplus was 183.21 billion yuan (US $29.15 billion), up by 7.7%.

There were 22 working days in January this year, compared with 17 in the same period last year due to the long Spring Festival holiday. After adjusting for the Spring Festival, the total value of imports and exports rose 8.1 percent year on year, with exports up 12.4 percent and imports up 3.4 percent.

Both China and its major trading partners registered an increase in import and export. In January, China's import and export to the EU amounted to 47.14 billion US dollars, up by 10.5%; China's import and export to the United States was 43.72 billion US dollars, up by 23.4 percent; Imports and exports to ASEAN amounted to 36.99 billion U.S. dollars, up 42.9 percent; And US $25.05 billion from Japan, up 10.3 percent. During the same period, the mainland's import and export to Hong Kong reached 33.4 billion US dollars, up 83 percent.

Among export commodities, the exports of mechanical and electrical products and traditional labor-intensive products grew in step with each other. In January, the export of mechanical and electrical products reached US $105.81 billion, up by 25.1 percent. Seven categories of labor-intensive products, including textiles, clothing, bags and suitcases, footwear, toys, furniture and plastic products, were exported to US $41.88 billion, up 24.6 percent.

Among imported goods, 65.54 million tons of iron ore were imported in January, up 11 percent; 30.55 million tons of coal, up 56.3 percent; And 1.1 million tons of steel, up 20.5 percent. During the same period, 4.78 million tons of soybeans were imported, up 3.8 percent. In addition, 351,000 tons of copper were imported, down 15.2 percent; And 70,000 cars, down 15.1 percent.

At the same time, the General Administration of Customs announced that in January 2013, the export enterprise network questionnaire survey data show that China's export managers index was 37.5, an increase of 3.3 compared with December 2012, the second consecutive month-on-month increase. Among them, the new export orders index was 40.5, an increase of 3.6; The export confidence index was 42.9, up 4.7; The comprehensive cost index of export enterprises was 17.9, down 0.5. The continuous rebound of the export managers' index indicates that China's foreign trade exports in the first quarter are relatively optimistic.

indicates that the proportion of enterprises with a year-on-year decrease in new orders has narrowed. According to the survey results, 47.4 percent of the enterprises reported a year-on-year decrease in the amount of new orders, down 5.1 percentage points from the previous month; 27% of enterprises reported an increase in new orders; 25.6 percent of the companies reported that the amount of new orders was unchanged.

The percentage of companies pessimistic about exports in the next 2-3 months fell to 40 percent. According to the survey results, 40.9 percent of enterprises are "not optimistic" about the export situation in the next two to three months, down 5.5 percentage points from the previous month; Twenty-four percent said they were "optimistic".

Reflecting the increase in the comprehensive cost of exports of enterprises remained at 70%. According to the survey results, 70.5% of enterprises reported a year-on-year increase in the comprehensive cost of exports, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month; Twenty-four percent of enterprises reported that the comprehensive cost of their exports remained flat year-on-year, while 5.5 percent reported a decline.

From the sub-cost survey, 72.2% and 53.5% of enterprises reported rising labor costs and exchange rate costs, 0.5 and 4.6 percentage points lower than the previous month, respectively; 52.7% of enterprises reported rising raw material costs, an increase of 0.3 percentage points over the previous month.

The export managers' index of small enterprises picked up faster. In January, the export managers' indices of large, medium and small enterprises were 40.7, 38.4 and 35.4, respectively, up 1.9, 3.6 and 4.0 from the previous month.

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