According to the customs statistics, the imports and exports of Jilin Province totaled RMB￥ 121.69 billion from January to December 2016, marking a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, with its growth speed ranking 3rd in China, including exports of RMB￥ 27.74 billion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 3%, and imports of RMB￥ 93.95 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 6%. In December alone, the imports and exports of Jilin Province were RMB￥ 10.78 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 8.9%, including exports of RMB￥ 2.56 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, and imports of RMB￥ 8.22 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 10.4%.
In US$, the imports and exports of Jilin Province totaled US$ 18.44 billion from January to December 2016, marking a year-on-year decrease of 2.3%. The exports totaled US$ 4.21 billion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 8.8%; the imports totaled US$ 14.24 billion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%. In December alone, the imports and exports of Jilin Province were US$ 1.57 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.5%, including exports of US$ 370 million, marking a year-on-year decrease of 2.7%, and imports of US$ 1.2 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 2.9%.
According to the customs statistics, in 2016, the imports and exports of China totaled RMB￥ 24.33 trillion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 0.9%, including exports of RMB￥ 13.84 trillion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 2.0%, and imports of RMB￥ 10.49 trillion, marking a year-on-year increase of 0.6%. The imports and exports of Liaoning Province were RMB￥ 570.91 billion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 4.1%; the imports and exports of Heilongjiang Province were RMB￥ 109.37 billion, marking a year-on-year decrease of 16%. From January to December 2016, of all the provinces and municipalities of China, Liaoning ranked 9th, Jilin 21st and Heilongjiang 24th in terms of imports and exports.
I. Main features of imports and exports of Jilin Province from January to December, 2016
1. Jilin Province’s foreign trade further confirmed stabilizing and picking-up trend. In December alone, the imports and exports of Jilin Province achieved a year-on-year growth of 8.9%, keeping its growth momentum for seven consecutive months, which further consolidated its stabilizing and picking-up trend in the province. From January to December, Jilin Province’s accumulative imports and exports grew by 3.8%, with the growth rate 4.7% higher than the national average. It ranked two places higher over last year in terms of the imports and exports amount.
2. The imports and exports of most of the regions grew. From January to December, all the regions, except the three regions of Jilin City, Siping and Tonghua, whose imports and exports decreased due to the adverse impacts of their major enterprises, realized growth in imports and exports, and their growth rate was all higher than 5%. The imports and exports of Songyuan, Liaoyuan, Baicheng and Baishan grew by 37.5%, 16.1%, 13.1% and 12.3% respectively, maintaining a good growth momentum.
(The following data are based on US$ as the numeraire.)
3. The imports and exports of mainstay enterprises were gradually recovering. From January to December, FAW’s imports and exports continued to show a growth trend, which effectively strengthened Jilin Province’s foreign trade to recover. The four enterprises, the Hunchun Zijin Mineral Co., Ltd., the Continental Automotive Electronics (Changchun) Co., Ltd., the Changchun Dahe Biotech and the Jinlong Soybean Industry, continued to demonstrate a strong growth momentum, and their imports and exports amounts in total increased by US$ 580 million year-on-year.
4. The exports of the broad-heading commodities remained sluggish on the whole, while the imports of automobiles and auto parts attained growth. Of the eight important broad-heading commodity exports, which account for 98% of the province’s total exports, five showed a decline trend, including declines of metallurgical & mineral products, light & textile products, and automobiles and auto parts by 35.9%, 20% and 14.6% respectively. There was slight growth for agricultural products, petrochemical product and pharmaceutical products. Of the five important broad-heading commodity imports, which account for 87% of the province’s total imports, the imports of automobiles and auto parts grew by 0.7%; the imports of agricultural products and petrochemical products dropped by 19.6% and 17.6% respectively; the imports of light & textile products and metallurgical and mineral products maintained their growth trends. The falling international markets of some resource-based products lessened corporate operating costs. From January to December, Jilin Province’s imports of coal were US$ 90.46 million, marking a year-on-year decrease of 14.5%, but the import volume grew by 32%, which reduced foreign exchange payment by US$ 49.2 million. The imports of iron sand were US$ 240 million, marking a year-on-year drop of 21.9%, but the import volume fell merely by 13.7%, which reduced foreign exchange payment by US$ 25.6 million.
5. The imports from and exports to our major trade partners was stabilizing. From January to December, among the top 10 trade markets of the province, Jilin Province realized growth in imports from and exports to such traditional markets as Japan and ROK, maintained good trends in such emerging markets as Slovakia, Czech, Hungary, Thailand, etc., and its imports from and exports to the U.S.A., Russia, Germany, Belgium, etc. dropped sharply. Jilin Province realized slight growth in exports to ROK.
6. The processing trade realized a growth momentum, and the imports and exports of foreign-funded enterprises enlarged their imports and exports proportions. From January to December, the processing trade was US$ 1.58 billion, up by 2.7% year-on-year, accounting for 8.9% of the total value of imports and exports of Jilin Province. The imports and exports of general trade were US$ 15.4 billion, down by 3.6% year-on-year. The imports and exports of state-owned enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises and private enterprises dropped by 3.6%, 0.6% and 6.6% respectively. The imports and exports of foreign-funded enterprises accounted for as much as 52.5% in Jilin Province, and the imports and exports of private enterprises continued to rank first.
II. Several concerns about our province’s foreign trade
1. The situation of imports and exports of foreign trade remains critical. In 2016, though the imports and exports of our province showed a recovering and picking up trend month by month, the decline was not completely checked and stayed higher than the national average declination. There were many factors such as slow recovery of global economy, sluggish demand on the international market, increasing trade conflicts, etc., coupled with obvious absence of the numbers of orders held by provincial enterprises, resulted in a still grave situation of imports and exports in 2017.
2. The number of key enterprises of imports and exports dwindled somewhat. Although there were 1836 enterprises with actual performances of imports and exports in Jilin Province, increasing by 90 enterprises over the previous year, there were only 133 enterprises each of which had imports and exports exceeding US$ 10 million in Jilin Province, decreasing by 15 enterprises over the previous year. There were eight enterprise each of which had imports and exports exceeding US$ 100 million, decreasing by two enterprises over the previous year.
Prices of bulk commodities are expected to rise around the world. Since the 2nd half of 2016, the prices of crude oil, iron sand, bulk agricultural products, copper ore concentrates, etc. have risen to some varied extent, and the prices of bulk commodities are expected to continue to pick up in 2017, which will play the role of to activate expansions of foreign trade for Jilin Province. 
