Chile: Exports to China are up almost 10% so far this year

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Exports to China have become in recent months one of the pillars of the Chilean economy, which has been marked by the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the world. This is revealed again by the figures for the period from January to August 2020, with a significant increase of 9.8% in shipments to Chile's main trading partner and an amount of US $ 16,118.9 million.

Meanwhile, according to the Foreign Trade Report of the Studies Department of the National Customs Service, global trade between Chile and China averaged US $ 25,020.9 million and registered a cumulative increase of 3.5% , compared to the same period of the 2019. Regarding imports, these decreased 5.3% between January and August of this year, with a purchase amount of US $ 9,458.2 million. As for what happened with trade with China only during August, exports reached US $ 1,925 million, with a positive variation of 6.6% when compared to the same month in 2019. Meanwhile, imports fell 6.3 % and corresponds to US $ 1,267.4.

The Undersecretary of Finance, Francisco Moreno, highlighted the sustained rise in exports to China since April in the midst of the pandemic, since this clearly shows that the facilitation measures we have adopted together with Customs and other public services have favored all actors in the logistics chain.

For his part, the national director of Customs, José Ignacio Palma to ensure that foreign trade continues to operate with relative normality, the commitment of all the officials of our Service and also of the private sector has been very important. received and applied in a very good way all the normative and operational measures that we have in place since March.

Exports

Between January and August 2020, China remained the main buyer of Chilean products with a 35.7% share of the country's total exports. Those from the mining sector represented 77% of total shipments, with US $ 12,412 million, which implied an increase of 15.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Within the basket of mining products, the shipments of copper minerals and their concentrates stood out, representing 50.9% of the exports of the mining sector as of August 31, 2020 and copper, the second in participation, with 39.9%, and a positive variation of 26.2%. 23.0% of shipments to China corresponded to exports of non-mining products, totaling 3,707 million dollars, with a decrease of 6.4%, compared to the same period of 2019.

The exports of fruits and accounted for 35.9% of the products of the non - mining sector, a decrease of 10.0%, and totaling 1,331 million dollars. 27.5% of national non-mining sales to China were of forest products and their derivatives , which presented a negative variation of 21.2%, in relation to the same period of 2019, mainly caused by the decrease of 20, 5% of cellulose shipments. Among other foods, the increase in pork meat stands out with a positive variation, compared to the same period of 2019, of 180.3%.

Meanwhile, within seafood, salmon and trout showed a decrease of 36%, with US $ 122 million. Likewise, the percentage increases in shipments of fish meal and canned fish and fish and shellfish preparations stood out in this group, registering increases of 68.4% and 80.3%, respectively.

Imports

Despite the decrease in imports, China positioned itself as the country's main supplier with a 26.4% share. 1.8% of the imports from China to our country corresponded to imports of the fuel and lubricants sector , which presented an increase of 509.3% in relation to the same period of 2019. While imports of non-fuel products they fell 6.8%. Chinese machinery purchases showed a positive variation of 28.5%, which implied an increase of 590 million dollars in the admission of these products.

The products of the Technology sectors suffered a fall of 9.6% , compared to the period between January 1 and August 31, 2019. While the entry into the country of goods classified under the category of Clothing, accessories and footwear fell 33.9%. Finally, the products of Means of transport and their parts had a decrease of 24.3%, whereas the groups of Food and Other products increased by 19.3% and 18.1% respectively, highlighting in Other Products the increase of 16.2% in fertilizers and 33.5% in medicines.