Guangdong sees net trade growth through April

Guangdong province and its major trading partners all enjoyed year-on-year growth in the first four months of the year, bucking the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Guangdong Customs on Wednesday, the province's import and export volume with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations increased a year-on-year by 2.8 percent from January to April, representing 15.7 percent of the province's total foreign trade volume.

ASEAN is the biggest trading partner of Guangdong, one of the major production bases in the world.

Guangdong's foreign trade with the United States and European Union also saw year-on-year growth — 15 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively — in the four months ending April, customs officials said in a statement.

Sustainable foreign trade growth has helped Guangdong, China's biggest foreign trader, achieve a foreign trade volume of more than 2.54 trillion yuan ($396.88 billion) in the first four months of this year, up year-on-year by 1.6 percent.

Guangdong sold products valued at more than 1.6 trillion yuan abroad, up year-on-year by 5.1 percent, while purchasing goods valued at 942.83 billion yuan from around the world, a year-on-year reduction of 3.8 percent, from January to April, said the statement.

Guangdong's grain and crude oil imports increased year-on-year by 40.8 percent and 39.2 percent, respectively, in the first four months. The province's imports of coal and iron ore, however, saw a year-on-year reduction of 32.4 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively, from January to April.

Meanwhile Guangdong's imports of integrated circuits increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year and accounted for 36.5 percent of Guangdong's total import value between January and April, it said.