Exports resilient on industrial upgrades

China's exports have shown strong resilience due to accelerated industrial upgrades amid some countries' containment measures, which include additional tariffs, technology export controls and manufacturing reshoring, according to experts.

They also said the country's exports are expected to make a positive contribution to overall economic growth at home this year.

Their comments came as the latest Customs data showed that outbound shipments of three categories of green products — solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles — surged 66.9 percent on a yearly basis to 264.69 billion yuan ($38.49 billion) in the first quarter.

These products contributed to 2 percentage points of the country's export growth during the period in yuan terms, which was 8.4 percent. Their weight in overall exports also increased to 4.7 percent in the first three months, up 1.7 percentage points from a year ago.

"Facing some Western countries' intensified containment of China's industrial chains, the country's industrial community has become more alert to challenges in this regard," said Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank.

"The industrial upgrades in China have been picking up momentum under such a context, adding competency to China in a number of fields including new energy-related industrial chains," Wen said.

At a news conference on Thursday, Lyu Daliang, a spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, also said new competitiveness and growth momentum are taking shape in China's foreign trade sector, which is helping stabilize foreign trade growth against the impact of weakening external demand.

The GAC said the country exported solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles to more than 200 countries and regions. Export growth of these products to the top five markets all expanded substantially — 88.7 percent for the European Union, 88.1 percent for the United States, 103.5 percent for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 121.7 percent for South Korea and 118.2 percent for the United Kingdom.

"New export impetus in new energy-related sectors, including solar power, battery energy storage and new energy vehicles, has been growing especially fast, resulting in resilience in related goods exports," said Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, predicts China's steady economic recovery will further unleash its supply potential to meet increasing global demand for new energy and other green products.

China has accumulated sharp competitiveness in the new energy sector in the past few years while the world's appetite for green products is growing, he said.

As China continues its industrial upgrades while also furthering efforts to tap more potential in emerging markets, the country's exports are expected to keep expanding despite weakening global demand, experts said.

The country's exports to the other 14 signatory countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which took effect early last year, stood at 1.65 trillion yuan in the first quarter, up 20.2 percent year-on-year.

Exports to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative surged 25.3 percent from a year ago to 2.04 trillion yuan during the period.