China's trade with Russia surges 36.5% from Jan-Jul, despite global downturn

Trade between China and Russia grew by 36.5 percent from January to July this year, maintaining strong momentum despite the global downturn, and outpacing China's other major trade partners amid rising uncertainties across the globe.

The data shows the two nations’ cooperation in trade has reached beyond commodities to a full-scale industrial chain, observers said, noting that the deep and integrated cooperation will further unleash trade potential between the two neighboring economies.

In the first seven months of 2023, bilateral trade rose by 36.5 percent year-on-year, with the total trade volume reaching $134.1 billion, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday.

Exports from China to Russia surged by 73.4 percent, resulting in a total export value of approximately $62.54 billion. Meanwhile, imports of Russian goods and services to China also experienced a substantial increase of 15.1 percent, reaching a total import value of $71.55 billion.

However, looking from a different perspective, the growth has slowed slightly. In the first six months of the year, China’s trade with Russia surged by 40.6 percent year-on-year, customs data showed.

Song Kui, president of the Contemporary China-Russia Regional Economy Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the data proves cooperation has now expanded beyond traditional areas such as commodity trade, and is evolving into wider-scale industrial chain cooperation that can withstand headwinds.

As for the performance of a single month, fluctuations are common due to the international market, the expert said.

Notably, trade data between China and Russia in the first seven months has not only far outpaced the growth of China’s overall foreign trade, but also almost all of China’s major trade partners.

In US dollar terms, China’s total foreign trade reached $3.4 trillion in the first seven months of the year, a decrease of 6.1 percent year-on-year. China’s trade with major partners including the EU, US and Japan also fell.

The promotion of local currency settlement in bilateral trade also played a significant role in driving growth in trade with Russia, as companies from both sides seek de-dollarization to reduce costs and risks, experts said.

In 2022, the China-Russia trade volume reached an unprecedented level of $190.271 billion.

“Cross-border industrial chain construction, whether in the energy, oil exploitation or food processing industries, are the areas where the two will cooperate further and continue to unleash potential,” Song said.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in May that China is willing to expand trade cooperation with Russia, as well as to promote the volume and quality of the bilateral cooperation.

Li stressed that China is ready to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with countries around the world including Russia to develop an open world economy and high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative to inject more certainty and impetus into the global economy.