Qingdao's foreign trade"report card" for the first quarter has been released. According to the statistics from Qingdao Customs, in the first quarter of this year, the import and export value of Qingdao reached 205.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 4.8%, accounting for 26.7% of the total import and export value of Shandong Province in the same period. Among them, exports was 119.1 billion yuan, an increase of 10.4%; imports was 86.88 billion yuan, a decrease of 1.9%. Among the 15 sub-provincial cities in China, Qingdao's import and export value ranks fifthfollowing Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Ningbo and Xiamen.

It is worth noting that Qingdao's foreign trade "new three items" have accelerated their growth, with a year-on-year increase of 106.3%, accounting for 42.2% of the total export value of the "new three items" in the province.

As the "barometer" and "wind vane" of China's foreign trade, the 135th Canton Fair, which is in full swing, is an important windowto observe the reasons for Qingdao's foreign trade "success"in the first quarter. During the Canton Fair, 837 Qingdao enterprises and thousands of Qingdao foreign traders are running to this "China's first exhibition", aiming to seize orders, seek business opportunities and expand the market. In the interaction with old and new friends, look for new opportunities to go to the world, and build a solid "tough strength" for the high-quality development of foreign trade.

The 135th Canton Fair opened just one hour, with over 20,000 overseas buyers entering the exhibition hall."

01

Foreign trade quality improves while quantity remains stable

According to the "first quarter report" data of Qingdao's foreign trade, the characteristics of "quality improvement" continue to be evident, effectively consolidating the momentum of "stable quantity".

The trade structure has been continuously optimized. In the first quarter, the import and export of general trade with longer industrial chains and higher added value reached 146.15 billion yuan, an increase of 13.8%, accounting for 71% of the total import and export value, and the share increased by 5.6 percentage points.

The vigor of the main body competes with each other. In the first quarter, the import and export of private enterprises reached 140.94 billion yuan, an increase of 2.5%, accounting for 68.4% of the total import and export value. During the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises reached 41.98 billion yuan, an increase of 19.5%.

The market layout is diversified and progressive. In the first quarter, Qingdao imported and exported 26.3 billion yuan, 23.4 billion yuan and 15.31 billion yuan to the European Union, the United States and Japan respectively, with a growth of 24%, 8.9% and 6.8% respectively. During the same period, the imports and exports to the countries jointly building "The Belt and Road" reached 97.05 billion yuan, accounting for 47.1% of the total import and export value.

The structure of imported products has been upgraded. In the first quarter, Qingdao imported 19.23 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 66.8%, accounting for 22.1% of the total import value. Iron ore import reached 9.114 million tons, up 52.6%; the value was 8.48 billion yuan, an increase of 72.4%, accounting for 9.8% of the total import value, and the share increased by 4.2 percentage points, driving import growth of 4 percentage points.

Customs officers conduct on-site supervision of iron ore to carry out "direct ship-to-ship transfer".

02

New driving forces are gathering momentum

Foreign traders often say: popularity is "wealth". The 135th Canton Fair is being held, with thousands ofbusinessmen gathering and crowds surging. Three days before the opening, the cumulative number of overseas buyers attending the meeting increased by 23% compared with the same period of the previous session. In the current situation where the global economy is weak in recovery and there are still many uncertainties in the international market environment, foreign businessmen use "footsteps" to measure the world's firm confidence in China.

Recently, air tickets from Qingdao to Guangzhou are in great demand, with flights during peak hours even being "hard to come by". Ctrip DigitalIntelligence hotel data show that during the first phase of the Canton Fair, Qingdao ranked ninth among domestic cities in terms ofbooking for hotels in Guangzhou.

At the Canton Fair, Qingdao enterprises were really "eye-catching". The core area of the first phase of the exhibition is intelligent home appliances, with Haier and Hisense booths occupying the "gateway position". A series of new products, new technologies, new solutions appeared, releasing the vitality of enterprises "going overseas", and the great changes brought by the new productive forces to the industry help enterprises transform the "traffic" of businessmen into the market "increment".

"The Chinese R&D Center is responsible for hardware and software design, the Australian R&D Center is responsible for motor upgrades, the European R&D Center solves energy-saving problems, and the American R&D Center provides fresh air technology solutions, whilethe manufacturing is in China." The X11 series washing and drying combination washing machine is the crystallization of Haier Smart Home's global collaborative R&D system, fully reflecting the high-end brand potential energy formed by Haier's globalization layout.

Hisense highlighted its industry-leading scenario-based display technology and intelligent solutions for home appliances, and its laser display, 110UX flagship TVs, intelligent home appliances, and Toshiba brand products made a concentrated appearance, demonstrating its advanced manufacturing strength of high-end, green, and intelligent, and also conveying its new brand image of "human centered technology, supreme quality" to businessmen from around the world.

The export data of Qingdao mechanical and electrical products in the first quarter glints with the hard core strength of Qingdao home appliance industry shown in the Canton Fair.

In the first quarter, Qingdao mechanical and electrical products export reached 59.2 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8%, accounting for 49.7% of the total export value. Among them, household appliances exported 9.44 billion yuan, an increase of 29.5%; auto parts exported 5.54 billion yuan, an increase of 7.8%; and containers exported 3.54 billion yuan, an increase of 81%.

The "new three items" represented by the electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic productshave become a beautiful landscape of China's foreign trade. With the realization of the big leap in industry capacity, the industry competition has also intensified. Only in the two exhibition areas of new energy vehicles and smart travel, as well as auto parts at the Canton Fair, there are 37 Qingdao exhibitors. The exhibitors distributed in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain have shown their special skills to create opportunities for the influx of orders at home and abroad.

Haier Smart Home booth welcomes overseas buyers.

This is also supported by data—

In the first quarter, the "new three items" of Qingdao's foreign trade exported 1.22 billion yuan, accounting for 42.2% of the export value of "new three items" in the province,with a year-on-year increase of 106.3%, 16.1 percentage points higher than the province.

Among them, lithium-ion batteries accounted for a higher proportion and exported 890 million yuan, an increase of 176.5%; the electric vehicles exported 310 million yuan, an increase of 61%.

More "going overseas" vitality are hidden in more than 25,000 trade entities with import and export performance in Qingdao. According to the data from the Qingdao Bureau of Commerce, the 1269 booths of Qingdao trade group at the Canton Fair are distributed in 42 exhibition areas such as household appliances, building materials, auto parts, tools, gardens, kitchen, gifts, furniture, food and home textiles.In addition to the leading enterprises such as Haier, Hisense, Aucma, Jifa and Xinhua Jin, there are 48 high-quality characteristic enterprises with national high-tech, specializing in new small giant, and Chinese time-honored enterprises. The quality of exhibitors have continued to be improved, and the new vitality of "go overseas" is surging.

03

Open development is making efforts to move towards a higher level

Foreign trade is a bridge to connect China and the world, serving not only as a booster of economic development, but also as an important part of the national strategy. Opening up is the most distinctive urban characteristic of Qingdao. Last year, the contribution of Qingdao's foreign trade import and export to the increment of Shandong Provincereached 70.6%, and the importance of Qingdao's foreign trade work is particularly prominent.

At present, the uncertainty and instability in the external environment are on the rise, and the road to openingup is facing difficulties and challenges. At this time, to further expand the comparative advantage of opening up, we need to aim at a higher level. This is an all-round opening up featuring a large market scale, wide range of opening up, diversified ways of opening up, complete elements of opening up, and mutual promotion of the dual circulation. The "High" should be embodied in the pattern of open vision, methods and mechanisms.

In February this year, at the City's High-level Opening up and High-quality Investment Promotion Conference, the implementation path of Qingdao's high-level opening up and development has been proposed. We need to set up a "big platform" for opening up and development, form a "big channel" for connectivity, create a "big market" for domestic introduction and foreign outreach, build a "big window" for international exchanges, and deepen institutional opening up.

The Customs officersare handlingthe business of issuing certificates of origin for enterprises.

Focusing on the opportunities and challenges of the current development of foreign trade, Qingdao has promoted the "stabilizing the scale and optimizing the structure" from three dimensions: new production projects, new foreign trade subjects and new business increments. We will strengthen the supply of foreign trade policies, formulate and introduce a new round of policies and measures to promote steady growth and improved quality of foreign trade, such as responding to the Red Sea crisis and enabling supply chain finance, implement plans to expand international markets, and support enterprises in participating in overseas exhibitions. We will make good use of the major platforms for opening up, such as the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area, the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qingdao Area, Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone, and the Qingdao West Coast Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and steadily expand institutional opening up. Deeply integrate into the construction of the "Belt and Road", seize the high-quality construction of the "Belt and Road" eight action opportunities, and implement the cross-border development leading upgrading projects of home appliances, electronics, rubber tires and other industries.

At present, Qingdao’s foreign traders are actively grabbing orders overseas. In the first quarter of this year, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Qingdao Sub-Council organized 89 foreign trade enterprises in the city to go to Germany, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and Spainto participate in nine well-known overseas exhibitions such as the German Cologne Hardware Exhibition, Barcelona Food Exhibition, reaching an intention order exceeding more than 110 milliondollars.The number of exhibitors and the intended turnover reached more than twice compared to the same period last year.

The links of foreign trade are numerous and intricate. At present, Qingdao is exploring the improvement of the "business + port + customs + tax" linkage mechanism "new method", to achieve the exchange of cargo clearance information, business sharing, and constantly optimize the trade environment. With opening up as the sail, seize opportunities through the exhibition, optimize and upgrade the trade structure, Qingdao enterprises with obvious industrial advantages will usher in a new "overseas" space.