Liberation Daily: Double digit year-on-year growth in Shanghai's foreign trade in the first 8 months

According to the latest statistics from Shanghai Customs, in the first eight months of this year, Shanghai achieved a cumulative import and export of 3.44 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%. In August alone, both exports and imports saw double-digit growth - exports reached 212.43 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1%; Imports amounted to 227 billion yuan, an increase of 10.5%. Shanghai's foreign trade has maintained growth for 19 consecutive months.

From the perspective of trade methods, the "bonded logistics" that demonstrates the strength of Shanghai Port's international cargo distribution and circulation hub is showing strong growth. From January to August this year, the import and export of Shanghai's bonded logistics reached 1.03 trillion yuan, an increase of 32.5%, accounting for 30% of the city's total import and export value during the same period, becoming an important force driving the growth of foreign trade.

From the perspective of trading partners, ASEAN has maintained its position as Shanghai's largest trading partner for four consecutive months since May this year. In the first eight months of this year, Shanghai's imports and exports to ASEAN reached 546.2 billion yuan, an increase of 30.6%, with Vietnam and Singapore increasing by 78.3% and 31.4% respectively. Shanghai also maintains stable growth compared to other emerging countries and regions. In August of this year, Shanghai imported 53.62 billion yuan from Africa, an increase of 21.8%. This indicates that China's policy dividend of implementing zero tariffs on 53 African countries with diplomatic relations since May is continuing to be released.

From the perspective of key commodities, the import and export of AI related products have grown rapidly since the beginning of this year. Shanghai is deeply embedded in the global AI industry supply chain, achieving a closed-loop system of first importing core components for full chain assembly locally, and then exporting molded products in bulk to the world. In the first eight months of this year, the total import and export of five types of AI related products, including integrated circuits, servers, memory, hard drives, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, amounted to 857.87 billion yuan, an increase of 90.7%, accounting for nearly 25% of Shanghai's total import and export value during the same period. During the same period, Shanghai's "new three types" (electric manned vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells) exported 173.88 billion yuan, an increase of 78.2%.