General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) announced that in the first half of 2023, China’s imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products totaled US$1.4 trillion, 6.6 percent lower than a year prior. The exports decreased by 0.8 percent to US$967.37 billion, and the imports dropped by 17.5 percent to US$432.74 billion. The trade balance of mechanical and electrical products expanded by 18.7 percent to US$534.62 billion in surplus.
In June, exports of mechanical and electrical products decreased by 5.7 percent to US$166.76billion. The imports decreased by 7.0 percent to US$80.87 billion, marking the 16th consecutive month of year-on-year decline.
In the first half of this year, the exports of automobiles and spare parts, general mechanical equipment, ships and other key traditional industries in the mechanical and electrical field increased. Electric vehicles, which account for over 40 percent of the total vehicle exports, have driven an increase of 77.1 percent and 108.1 percent in the total vehicle export volume and value respectively, marking the 33th consecutive month of year-on-year increase. Exports of household appliance continued to recover, with an increase of 5.8 percent in June, marking the 4th consecutive month of year-on-year growth.
Due to weak global demand, the exports of electronic information products remain sluggish. In the first half of 2023, the export volume and value of mobile phones decreased by 13.5 percent and 14.8 percent respectively, and the export volume decreased continuously for 13 months; The exports of automatic data processing machines and parts thereof decreased by 24.3 percent, marking the 11th consecutive month of year-on-year decline; The exports of integrated circuits decreased by 17.7 percent, marking the 12th consecutive month of negative growth.
The imports of integrated circuits, computers, automobiles and spare parts, and LCD display modules generally decreased in the first half of 2023. Due to weak demand in the downstream consumer electronics industry and declining prices of major products, the imports of integrated circuits decreased by 22.4 percent to US$162.61 billion, and the proportion of integrated circuits in China’s total goods imports accordingly decreased from 15.3 percent in 2022 to 13 percent at present.

Data Source: www.customs.gov.cn