In the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, Gansu’s foreign trade achieved a good start in the first two months and handed over a “report card” that boosted morale.
On March 16, Lanzhou Customs released data. In the first two months of this year, the total import and export value of Gansu Province was 14.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%.
Among them, exports were 3.64 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 111.3%; imports were 10.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%.
Viewed in the complex international economic and trade environment, this “report card” is hard-won.
Looking at the growth momentum, exports and imports are increasing across the board; looking at the quantity, the import volume is greater than the export volume.
This not only demonstrates the strong resilience and vitality of Gansu’s foreign trade, but also demonstrates the continuous expansion of Gansu’s production and consumer demand.
Behind this, it is inseparable from the vitality released by Gansu’s accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system and promoting industrial development, upgrading and renewal.
In recent years, Gansu has accelerated the construction of a modern industrial system, promoted the extension of traditional industries such as petrochemicals, nonferrous metallurgy, and equipment manufacturing to the high end, and promoted the accelerated development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, biomedicine, and digital economy, showing strong momentum and huge potential.
Gansu’s industrial renewal and upgrading not only provide high-quality products and services to the global market, but also bring new market demands.
Let’s first look at “what is sold” in Gansu.
In the first two months of this year, Gansu’s exports of mechanical and electrical products and agricultural products performed brilliantly.
Gansu’s exports of mechanical and electrical products were 1.03 billion yuan, an increase of 46%, accounting for 28.3% of the province’s total export value.
Among them, the export of integrated circuits was 200 million yuan, an increase of 8.5%; the export of drilling rigs was 79.796 million yuan, with no exports in the same period last year; the export of electric vehicles was 47.679 million yuan, an increase of 497.6%.
The export of agricultural products was 690 million yuan, an increase of 17.3%.
Among them, the export of seeds was 180 million yuan, an increase of 20.8%; the export of fresh apples was 130 million yuan, an increase of 13.9%.
This is a vivid manifestation of Gansu’s new energy, new materials and specialty agricultural products accelerating their overseas expansion, and the industry’s renewal and upgrading from “green” to “new”.
Take the new energy industry as an example. At present, Gansu has formed a complete industrial chain for new energy equipment manufacturing in photovoltaic, wind power and solar thermal.
In the first 20 days of this year, the export volume of Ouhao New Energy Power (Gansu) Co., Ltd., a leading photovoltaic cell company in Gansu, exceeded 10 million yuan.
In terms of characteristic agriculture, Gansu has accelerated the development of modern cold and drought characteristic agriculture, and the “Ganwei” brand is well-known at home and abroad.
In the first two months, soy products from Gansu Zhaofeng Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. were sold to markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea; Huaniu apples from Gansu Jiannong Rensheng Fruit Co., Ltd. were sold well in ASEAN.
The relevant person in charge of Lanzhou Customs introduced that since RCEP came into effect, Gansu has become increasingly close in economic and trade exchanges with ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, and new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement have developed steadily.
At present, Gansu’s exports to ASEAN have formed a pattern of coordinated export of specialty agricultural products and industrial products. Tianshui Huaniu apples, Dingxi potatoes, Zhangye vegetable seeds and other agricultural products continue to grow. Photovoltaic modules, lithium batteries and other new energy products are growing well. Traditional markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore have maintained steady growth.
Let’s look at what Gansu “bought”.
In the first two months of this year, Gansu’s imports of nickel matte and nickel cobalt materials maintained growth.
The imported nickel matte was 2.25 billion yuan, an increase of 2.2%; the imported nickel and cobalt materials were 510 million yuan, an increase of 55.8%; the imported agricultural products were 370 million yuan, an increase of 35.7%; the imported metal ore was 6.48 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 60% of the province’s total import value.
The growth in imports reflects the growing demand for industrial production in Gansu and the continued release of market consumption vitality.
Take advanced manufacturing as an example. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the added value of Gansu’s nonferrous metallurgy, petrochemicals, and equipment manufacturing industries increased by an average annual rate of 17.8%, 4.8%, and 9.9% respectively.
The output value of new energy and new energy equipment manufacturing industry reached 100.66 billion yuan.
Since the beginning of this year, Gansu has implemented the “Five Powers” action, focusing on building a national regional modern manufacturing base and building a modern industrial system that reflects Gansu’s characteristics and advantages.
Vigorously develop key industries such as petrochemicals, non-ferrous metallurgy, new energy, new materials, equipment manufacturing, aerospace, digital information, and biomedicine, cultivate and strengthen modern light industry and modern service industry, create “Made in Gansu”, “Created in Gansu” and “Designed in Gansu”, and build a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone.
Industrial development is moving towards new and improved quality, with obvious growth momentum.
On the production side, the import of key raw materials strongly supports Gansu industrial enterprises in improving quality and upgrading, expanding capacity and increasing production.
Lanzhou Customs statistics show that in the first two months, the province’s processing trade import and export reached 3.45 billion yuan, an increase of 33.8%, accounting for 23.7% of the province’s total foreign trade value.
On the consumer side, Gansu International Logistics Group purchases grains and oils from Central Asia and fruits from ASEAN into Gansu and distributes them to surrounding areas, reflecting the huge potential of Gansu and the national consumer market.
A Gansu with strong momentum for high-quality development is creating more opportunities for partners at home and abroad to work together for win-win results.
The relevant person in charge of Lanzhou Customs said that they will seize the biggest opportunity of jointly building the “Belt and Road”, continue to align with high-standard economic and trade rules, optimize the customs clearance environment, smooth and open channels, support Gansu’s characteristic industries and advantageous products to expand overseas markets, and promote Gansu’s foreign trade to achieve both quantity and quality improvement.
