General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) announced that in the last four months of 2022, China’s imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products totaled US$989 billion, 6.1 percent higher than a year prior. Besides, exports grew by 8.9 percent to US$633.9 billion, and imports grew by 1.6 percent to US$355 billion. The trade balance of mechanical and electrical products expanded US$46.1 billion to US$278.9 billion in surplus.

Exports in April: the year-on-year increase of 0.11 percent
Decreasing global demand and blocked domestic supply chain led to the weak performance of mechanical and electrical products exports in April. In April, China’s exports of mechanical and electrical products moved up 0.11 percent year on year, Whereas maintaining the positive year-on-year growth for 23 consecutive months, the growth rate was significantly lower than that in March with 11.4 percent, and was also the lowest one since June 2020. Besides, if calculated in CYN, the exports fell by 1.8 percent, which was the first year-on-year decline in the recent two years.
Affected by the decline of computer demand, the exports of automatic data processing machines and parts thereof decreased by 5 percent year-on-year, which was the first decline in nearly 10 months. The exports of household appliances and audio or video devices and parts thereof decreased by 5.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively, both for the third consecutive months’ decline. The exports of integrated circuits reached US$11.9 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, which was also the lowest rate since February 2020.
In terms of mobile phones, exports volume and value decreased by 6.1 and 7.3 percent respectively. In the first four months, the export volume of mobile phones decreased by 14.2 percent, totaled 44.3 million, but the increase in the average export price led to a cumulative increase in export value of 2.2 percent.
The export volume of motor vehicles (including chassis fitted with engines) reached 171 thousand, higher than that in the same period last year with 155 thousand, but lower than that of 199 thousand in March. The exports growth of 8.9 percent in April was significantly lower than that of 54.7 percent in March and 87.1 percent in Q1.

Imports in April: the year-on-year decrease of 6.6 percent
In April, China’s imports of mechanical and electrical products reached US$87.1billion, which decreased by 6.6 percent year-on-year. The imports of automatic data processing machines and parts thereof, parts and accessories of vehicle, medical or surgical instruments and apparatuses, diodes and similar semiconductors, machine-tools, etc. decreased.
In April, the imports of parts and accessories of vehicle reached decreased by 16.9 percent to US$2.7 billion, continuing the trend of year-on-year decline of 18.6 percent in Q1.
The import volume of integrated circuits decreased by 16.4 percent year-on-year, which fell for the fifth consecutive month. The import value was supported by the rise of unit price, which increased by 5.2 percent year-on-year to US $34.8billion. The trade deficit was US$22.9 billion, decreasing US$1.94 billion month-on-month.

Data Source: www.customs.gov.cn