By 2025, Shandong's trade volume and quality with Latin America will both increase (see chart)
The picture shows customs officers inspecting imported iron ore from Latin America
According to customs statistics, Shandong's imports and exports to Latin America and the Caribbean (hereinafter referred to as "Latin America") will reach 409.19 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, which is 11.4 percentage points higher than the province's growth rate. Among them, exports amounted to 186.86 billion yuan, an increase of 5.9%; Imports reached 222.33 billion yuan, an increase of 25.9%, and the scale and quality of bilateral trade have improved synchronously.
With the continuous deepening of economic and trade cooperation, the position of Latin America in Shandong's foreign trade pattern has steadily increased, accounting for 11.6% of the province's total foreign trade value, and the structure of trading partners has become more diversified. Brazil remains Shandong's largest trading partner in Latin America, with Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and other countries experiencing rapid growth in imports and exports. The multi-point trade pattern effectively enhances the stability and resilience of Shandong's economic and trade cooperation with Latin America.
In terms of product structure, Shandong and Latin America have distinct complementary advantages. Shandong mainly imports resource-based commodities such as metal ore, agricultural products, crude oil, and pulp from Latin America. The import volume of iron ore and copper ore has steadily increased, while the import of consumer goods such as soybeans, beef, and aquatic products has maintained a good growth trend, providing strong support for the development of industries and market supply in the province.
Recently, the "Wangmei" ship carrying 177000 tons of imported iron ore from Brazil docked at berth 14 south of Rizhao Port. The Rizhao Customs under Qingdao Customs relies on the intelligent supervision information platform for imported iron ore, supporting immediate unloading, inspection, and mixing of goods, achieving dynamic inspection and rapid release throughout the process, effectively reducing ship demurrage time and enterprise costs. It is reported that all the goods on the ship are used for bonded mixed ore business and will be supplied to inland steel mills in China in the future.
In terms of exports, electromechanical products account for half of the market share, and the competitiveness of "Made in Shandong" in the Latin American market continues to strengthen. The export of basic organic chemicals, aluminum and other products has increased significantly, and high value-added products continue to make efforts.
As an important frontier for Shandong's exports to Latin America, Yantai Port plays a crucial role in two-way trade. Under the full facilitation service guarantee of customs, batches of advantageous products such as construction materials, machinery and equipment, and new energy accessories are quickly cleared through customs, directly reaching Latin American countries such as Cuba and Mexico, serving the deepening of bilateral trade cooperation.
Recently, the "Sunshine Keya" ship carrying 28000 tons of engineering building materials, engineering vehicles, and new energy supporting equipment completed customs clearance and inspection at Yantai Port and set sail smoothly. The entire process from declaration to release of these exported goods has been reduced by more than 25% compared to the past, helping enterprises seize the Latin American infrastructure market.
Yantai Customs, a subsidiary of Qingdao Customs, focuses on the characteristics of multiple categories, large batches, and strong timeliness of exported general cargo. It optimizes the exclusive customs clearance process for general cargo, implements convenient customs clearance measures such as "delayed and staggered appointment clearance", "early declaration", and "timely inspection", and provides accurate and convenient services for enterprises throughout the entire process. It significantly reduces the clearance time for multiple categories of general cargo, effectively reduces the comprehensive operating costs of enterprises, and fully guarantees the efficient export of general cargo from Shandong to Latin America, and unblocks the two-way logistics chain of "Latin American resources entering and Shandong manufacturing".
From efficient import of resource commodities to convenient export of high-quality finished products, various ports in Shandong Province are working together to upgrade customs supervision and services, injecting strong momentum into the continuous warming of trade between Shandong and Latin America.
In the future, with the continuous deepening of customs clearance facilitation reform and the continuous improvement of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, the trade potential between Shandong and Latin America will be further released, the import and export scale will steadily expand, and the commodity structure will continue to optimize. In serving the overall situation of the country's opening up to the outside world, a more exciting new chapter of economic and trade cooperation will be written. (Wang Jingyu, Wan Feng, Cai Ziyang/text)