China's foreign trade expected to hit new high

China's foreign trade will maintain upward growth momentum in the remaining months of the year, despite a range of challenges, such as the global impact of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and surging inflation in many countries, as well as occasional electricity outages in some domestic regions, according to experts and business leaders.

They also said that China's foreign trade, which is expected to reach a new high in the year, will continue to provide solid support to Chinese economic growth and world economic recovery amid global economic uncertainties due to the Delta variant-fueled COVID-19 surge.

"Global consumption often picks up in the fourth quarter with multiple festivals and celebrations like Christmas in Western countries, which will shore up demand for China's exports, while many upcoming events, including the China International Import Expo, will also help expand imports," said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

Yu Miaojie, deputy dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, said the world still needs Chinese products despite developed economies resuming production, adding that orders signed in the first half of the year are also helping to boost exports.

Gao Lingyun, a senior research fellow and director of the international investment division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, said: "The nation's foreign trade will see higher-quality development over the period, because Chinese exports are moving up the global value chain.

"Breakthroughs in new technologies such as for cross-border payment are also optimizing business operations for both domestic enterprises and their trading partners."

He said the electricity usage curbs in some of the country's manufacturing and export powerhouse regions, such as Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, will impact both exports and imports, as a proportion of China's imports are bound for value-added exports.

He pointed out that businesses that have already carried out technological upgrading to improve their energy efficiency can continue to expand their market presence, despite the ongoing curbs in electricity usage.

According to Zhou, as the pandemic continues to have a severe impact on global production and recovery, high levels of inflation in many developed economies, including the United States and Europe, have led to panic buying and put more strain on already fragile global supply chains and have disrupted the normal operations of China's foreign trade enterprises.

But such disruptions will not reverse the upward momentum of China's foreign trade, which will continue to grow and support world economic recovery by offsetting the uncertain situation in global supply chains, experts said.

As of the third quarter, many Chinese shipbuilders already received more orders than in the whole of last year, from both the domestic and global markets.