China's June export growth slows to 11.3%

BEIJING -- China's exports rose 11.3 percent year-on-year to $180.21 billion in June, slowing from the 15.3 percent in May, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday.

The imports increased 6.3 percent to $148.48 billion, compared with a growth of 12.7 percent a month earlier.

Trade surplus jumped 42.9 percent year-on-year to reach $31.73 billion in June, surpassing market expectations.

In the first six months of 2012, total foreign trade reached $1.84 trillion, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year, lower than the 10-percent increase targeted by the government for the whole of 2012.

Combined trade surplus surged by 56.4 percent year-on-year to $68.92 billion in the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, exports rose 9.2 percent to $954.38 billion during the January-June period, according to the GAC data.

Customs authorities attributed the trade slowdown to the persistent impact of the global financial crisis, saying China's trade with the European Union and Japan almost stalled in the first half of this year.

"We are still facing a more complicated and severe situation in foreign trade," GAC spokesman Zheng Yuesheng told a news conference releasing the customs data. "But China's core competitiveness in manufacturing will not see significant changes in the short term."

"If the world economy, particularly the European debt crisis, does not become worse, we will hopefully achieve the 10-percent growth goal in foreign trade this year," Zheng added.

Even though the debt crisis still bites, the EU remained China's largest trading partner in the first half of this year, with bilateral trade reaching $267.82 billion, up slightly by 0.7 percent from a year ago.

In the first half of this year, China's trade with the United States - its second-largest trade partner - reached $231.12 billion, up 11.9 percent year-on-year.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations held its position as China's third-largest trade partner, with China-ASEAN trade amounting to $187.82 billion, up 9.7 percent year-on-year.

China's trade with Japan, which is still recovering from last year's devastating tsunami and massive earthquake, dipped 0.2 percent from a year earlier to $162 billion in the first six months of 2012.

In a breakdown of imports, China's iron ore imports rose 9.7 percent from a year ago to 370 million metric tons in the January-June period, with crude oil imports increasing 11 percent year-on-year to 140 million tons, and coal imports surging 65.9 percent to 140 million tons.

Moreover, exports of machinery and electronics posted an increase of 10.5 percent to $550.25 billion, accounting for 57.7 percent of total exports in the first half of this year.