According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, the total value of China’s trade in goods in the first quarter of 2024 was 10.17 trillion yuan, exceeding 10 trillion yuan for the first time in history, with a year-on-year increase of 5.0%; In dollar terms, it was $1.43 trillion, up 1.5% from a year earlier. Among them, the export was 5.74 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.9% year-on-year, 4.1 percentage points higher than that in the fourth quarter of last year; In dollar terms, it was $0.81 trillion, up 1.5% from a year earlier.
Among them, the growth rate of foreign trade in emerging economies such as the “Belt and Road” countries and the “BRICS” countries is higher than the overall. In the first quarter of 2024, China’s imports and exports to countries jointly building the “Belt and Road” reached 4.82 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.5% year-on-year, accounting for 47.4% of the total import and export value, an increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, the import and export to ASEAN reached 1.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%. In the same period, the import and export to the other nine BRICS countries was 1.49 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.3%, accounting for 14.7% of the total import and export value. In addition, the import and export to the EU, the United States, South Korea and Japan were 1.27 trillion yuan, 1.07 trillion yuan, 0.54 trillion yuan and 0.52 trillion yuan respectively, accounting for 33.4%.

Exports of mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products showed good momentum. In the first quarter of 2024, China’s export of mechanical and electrical products was 3.39 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.8%, accounting for 59.2% of the total export value; Among them, computers and their parts, automobiles and ships increased by 8.6%, 21.7% and 113.1%, respectively. During the same period, the export of labor-intensive products was 0.98 trillion yuan, up by 9.1%; Among them, textile and clothing, plastic products and furniture increased by 5.4%, 14.0% and 23.5%, respectively.
The overall performance in the first quarter of 2024 was acceptable, but it is worth noting that, affected by the high comparison base in the same period last year and the “Spring Festival effect”, exports fell in March. In terms of RMB, the total value of China’s trade in goods in March was 3.56 trillion yuan, down 1.3% year-on-year; Among them, exports were 1.99 trillion yuan, down 3.8% year-on-year. In dollar terms, China’s import and export value in March was 0.50 trillion US dollars, down 5.1% year on year; Among them, exports were 0.28 trillion US dollars, down 7.5% year-on-year. Exports to major economies fell.
In the first quarter of 2024, China’s total exports of lighting products were 13.05 billion US dollars, a slight decline of 2.0% year-on-year. Among them, the export value of LED lighting products was 9.62 billion US dollars, accounting for 74% of the total export value, a slight decline of 1.3% year-on-year. It should be pointed out that the average export price of most lighting products has continued to decline since last year, and export enterprises generally reflect that the increment does not increase income, and the increase of income does not increase profit. The overall situation of lighting exports in the first quarter is basically consistent with the author’s forecast last month.
Exports in March 2024 were $3.52 billion, a sharp decline of 32.2% compared with a previous increase of 62.0%, the largest decline in 50 months since February 2020. It was also down 6.6% from the previous month. It should be pointed out that March last year was just the release of the backlog of orders after the epidemic, and the year-on-year growth rate and amount of lighting exports were the highest for the whole year, which is the “base effect”. In addition, superimposed manufacturing exports generally face the “Spring Festival effect”, that is, “grab exports” before the Spring Festival, and exports will fall significantly after the festival; Due to the late Spring Festival in 2024, exports in March were impacted.