China's total export amount in 2023 decreased by 4.6%

Overall, China's foreign trade exports experienced a decline, followed by a recovery in Q4 2023.

Global trade showed a significant contraction in 2023, as export-oriented economies generally faced pressure, with South Korea and Vietnam experiencing a 7.4% and 4.4% year-on-year decrease in total export amount, respectively, in 2023.

This data came from XTransfer's new report, titled '2023 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Export Trade (B2B) Index Report', which also found that China's total export amount in 2023 decreased by 4.6% when measured in US dollars. Overall, China's foreign trade exports experienced a decline, followed by a recovery in Q4 2023. Additionally, when measured in Chinese yuan, China's total export amount in 2023 increased by 0.6% year-on-year.

The report draws on representative data from XTransfer's ample of customers in 2023 and previous periods, to study the performance of China's small and medium-sized (SME) enterprises.

Competitiveness of SME foreign trade enterprises

The external environment in 2023 was hit by factors such as weakened external demand, geopolitical conflicts, industrial chain shifts, and exchange rate fluctuations. As such, the competitiveness of China's SME foreign trade enterprises experienced significant fluctuations, but still improved compared to 2022.

  

Focusing on the key indicators related to the competitiveness index, it can be seen that:

The "total amount per order" indicator significantly improved compared to the previous year,

The average value of the "total amount per order" in 2023 increased by 17.2% compared to the previous year,

The indicator "proportion of first-phase payment for orders" in the competitiveness index decreased, with an average value of 1.7 percentage points lower than the same period in 2022,

July had the poorest performance, with a 1.9 percentage point decrease compared to the same period the previous year,

The "average number of payments per order" fluctuated from May to October, with an average value of 4% higher than in 2022.

In the fourth quarter, the indicator "average shipping time" reached its highest value since 2023, extending by 14.4% compared to the annual average. This indicates a decline in operational efficiency for foreign trade enterprises in December.

Challenging global trade environment

From the perspective of export destinations, the top three regions for export value of China's SMEs in foreign trade are North America, the European Union, and ASEAN. The countries with higher export growth rates for China's SMEs include Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa.

Regarding export product categories, the top three product categories for China's SMEs in foreign trade are electrical and mechanical products, base metals and their products, and textile raw materials and textile products.

Among them, women's clothing saw a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue, indicating that traditional apparel exports remain a strength for SMEs. High-definition cameras experienced a 14% year-on-year growth in revenue, indicating that the export of electronic products is no longer limited to complete products, with core components becoming a major new trend.  

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Lead photo / 123RF
Inline photo / Provided