Manufacturing industy moving away from coastal areas: expert
Some inland provinces have reported robust growth in trade volume in the first three quarters, despite the ongoing decline in the country's overall trade, according to a list compiled by the Global Times on Thursday, based on figures recently released by the provincial governments.
The total trade volume of Northwest China's Qinghai Province surged 42.6 percent year-on-year, ranking No.1 among all provinces.
Trade volume in Central China's Henan Province surged 21.2 percent year-on-year in the January-September period, while for Hubei and Hunan provinces it rose 5.7 percent and 1.3 percent year-on-year, respectively, according to data from the provincial governments.
Out of the 29 provincial governments that have so far released trade data for the first three quarters, 21 have reported negative growth, according to data compiled by the Global Times.
"The manufacturing industry has been transferring from East China to inland provinces, especially electronics and machinery manufacturing, which is partly why the central provinces are reporting higher trade growth," Tian Yun, editor-in-chief at the Macro China Information Network, told the Global Times Thursday.
Henan is home to several factories owned by Foxconn Technology Group, a major contract manufacturer for Apple Inc. The province has seen exports of mobile phones become the main driving force for its foreign trade. The export volume of mobile phones from the province totaled 97.73 billion yuan ($15.34 billion) in the first three quarters, up 35.5 percent year-on-year and accounting for 55.4 percent of the province's total exports, local newspaper Henan Daily reported on October 15.
Hubei also said that electronics are a major growth engine for its foreign trade. The value of mobile phones exported in the first three quarters tripled compared with the same period in 2014, and exports of tablets surged by 98.9 percent year-on-year during the period, according to a post on the province's website on October 15.
However, experts noted that a low base of comparison is a key reason for the impressive growth in trade volume in these provinces at present.
The traditionally strong provinces in foreign trade all reported negative growth in the first three quarters. For instance, the total trade volume for South China's Guangdong Province dropped 4.3 percent year-on-year in January-September and that of East China's Zhejiang dropped 2.6 percent.
China's coastal provinces, which rely heavily on trade for growth, are now trying to restructure their economy. In a post on October 21, the Guangdong provincial government said that the province's services sector now accounts for a higher percentage of its GDP growth compared to 2014 and its manufacturing sector is also moving up the value chain.
"But economic restructuring and upgrading is a slow process," said Tian, adding that it will take time before the restructuring starts to boost growth.
China's exporters are facing tough times because of rising labor costs, lackluster external demand and the stronger yuan, experts said. In the first 10 months, China's total trade volume dropped 8.1 percent year-on-year to 19.93 trillion yuan ($3.13 trillion), with exports falling 2 percent and imports diving by 15.2 percent, according to customs data released Sunday.
The State Council has released a series of measures to boost trade this year, including simplifying customs procedures and improving financing support. Recent media reports have said that the government is considering more measures to support innovative business models.
But even with such measures, trade growth is unlikely to turn positive this year, Liu Xuezhi, an analyst with Bank of Communications, told the Global Times Thursday.
"The supportive measures should be directed toward traders whose businesses represent an improvement in the trade structure," Liu noted.
