Container Boom Witnesses The Vitality Of Foreign Trade

In 2020, China's GDP will exceed 100 trillion yuan for the first time, and China's economy will reach a new level. Entering a new stage of development, to ensure that we take the first step in building a new development pattern and see the new outlook, we need to sum up our experience and move forward. Starting today, this edition will launch a series of commentaries to witness the warmth and vitality surging in the Chinese economy through production, distribution, circulation, consumption and other links, praise the extraordinary achievements and encourage the new journey.

　　——Editor

　　 Accurately recognize change, scientifically adapt to changes, actively seek change, foreign trade seeks certainty in uncertainty, and has made extraordinary achievements in extraordinary years

　　As long as the door is opened wider and wider, we can consolidate our advantages in foreign trade, expand development space, and use the positive interaction of the domestic and international double cycle to promote China's economy to seize the opportunity and create new glory

　　In the fourth phase of Shanghai Yangshan Deepwater Port, the crane operator on the 15-story tower faced the screen and gently moved the rocker to accurately hoist and put down the container on the yard hundreds of meters away. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, from January to April 2020, the container throughput of Shanghai Port dropped by 8.4% year-on-year, which was once worrying. Today, in the world's largest unmanned automated terminal, busyness has once again become the norm. In 2020, the container throughput of Shanghai Port rushed to a new peak of 43.5 million TEUs, drawing a beautiful "V" shape.

　　 Not only in Shanghai, from Ningbo to Tianjin, from Qingdao to Dalian, container terminals in full swing are present at many major ports in my country. Not only by sea, but containers are also experiencing a peak in foreign trade on land. In 2020, the China-Europe Express Train will break through the “ten thousand trains” mark, and will continue to ship anti-epidemic materials, auto parts, and electronic products produced in China to abroad. The freight rates in the ocean shipping market continued to rise, driving the composite index of the export container shipping market to rise. In mid-January this year, after maintaining a continuous upward trend, China's export container freight index has reached 1,863.84 points, which is more than a thousand points higher than the May 2020 average. "I was still worried about the accumulation of boxes in the first half of last year, and now there are not enough trucks to pull containers." This has become a portrayal of the work of container manufacturers everywhere.

　　 On the large sea and land transportation corridors, one container after another reflects the warmth of foreign trade, releasing a positive signal of China's rapid economic recovery. In 2020, as the world economy has fallen into a severe recession, the global trade in goods has dropped by 5.6% year-on-year, while the total value of China's trade in goods has reached a record high of 32.16 trillion yuan, highlighting the resilience and vitality of China's economy. After going through the winds and frosts without being discouraged, and becoming stronger through the ice and snow, the Chinese economy has withstood the stress test and injected confidence in the recovery of the global market.

　　 The strong recovery of foreign trade is not only supported by international logistics using containers as the carrier, but also a stable industrial chain and supply chain. Take exports as an example. The supply side goes all-out and the upstream and downstream joint efforts are the fundamental guarantee to meet international market demand. In Guangdong, a foreign trade enterprise dealing in electrical appliances has been operating at full capacity. This is due to the hard work of all employees and the strong cooperation of suppliers such as sheet metal and electronic components. Relying on the ultra-large-scale market and complete industrial system, we quickly solved the problems of tight raw material supply and poor logistics connection between domestic and overseas, ensured the recovery of all links in the industrial chain and supply chain, and laid a solid foundation for the recovery of foreign trade.

　　 The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that scientific decision-making and creative response are the fundamental methods to turn crises into opportunities. From the achievement of major strategic results in the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, to the efficient resumption of work and production in various regions, to the introduction of a series of policies to improve the export tax rebate mechanism and increase foreign trade credit to promote foreign trade to promote stability and quality, scientific and careful decision-making, accurate and effective Policies have become the source of confidence for foreign trade to respond to the impact of the epidemic. Accurately recognize changes, scientifically adapt to changes, and actively seek changes. Foreign trade seeks certainty amidst uncertainty, and has made extraordinary achievements in extraordinary years.

　　 After 8 years and 31 rounds of formal negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) was officially signed at the end of last year. As an important platform for expanding opening up, RCEP will further optimize foreign trade and increase the "gold content" of my country's free trade zone network. In the future, the restructuring of the global industrial chain will accelerate, and various derivative risks caused by the impact of the epidemic cannot be ignored. Foreign trade is still full of uncertainties. We firmly believe that as long as the door is opened wider and wider, we can consolidate our advantages in foreign trade, expand development space, and use the benign interaction of the domestic and international double cycles to promote China's economy to seize the opportunity and create greater glories.

Reprinted from: China Trade News Author Ge Yan