Qin Fen, head of the industry and business department of Alibaba International station, recently made an in-depth analysis of the foreign trade trend of various industries in China in the official broadcast room of Alibaba International Station. He believes that China's foreign trade is moving towards a highly profitable era, and more and more Chinese enterprises will enter the ranks of branding and high-end manufacturing.

Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that in the first quarter of this year, The total value of China's trade in goods reached 9.42 trillion yuan, up 10.7% year on year, maintaining positive year-on-year growth for seven consecutive quarters and achieving a stable start to foreign trade in 2022.

Cross-border e-commerce is becoming increasingly important

In 2021, China's export volume continued to expand, with its total export trade volume reaching 3.36 trillion yuan, an increase rate of more than 30 percent. "Affected by the rising cost of international logistics, China's export trade structure will continue to adjust in 2022, with many foreign trade businesses shifting to higher-value-added industries." Qin Fen said.

As an important force in the development of China's foreign trade, China's private enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in the export of foreign trade. In 2021, the total import and export volume of China's private enterprises reached 19 trillion yuan, up 26.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 48.6 percent of China's total import and export volume and contributing 58.2 percent to the growth of foreign trade. Since China opened its private foreign trade in 1999, the export volume of private trade has increased by 1800 times, accounting for 60% of China's total export volume. Qin Fen believes that in the coming year, China's foreign trade business main vitality will continue to stimulate, private enterprises will play a more important role in promoting the stable development of China's foreign trade.

In terms of trade partners, China's trade partners are becoming more diversified, and the markets of countries along the Belt and Road have become new growth points in foreign trade. Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road has become increasingly close. According to customs statistics, China's imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road reached 2.93 trillion yuan in the first quarter of this year, up 16.7% year-on-year. Exports totaled 1.64 trillion yuan, up 16.2%; Imports totaled 1.29 trillion yuan, up 17.4%. "With the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have generated a lot of trade impetus to China," said Qin Fen.

Among them, cross-border e-commerce, as a new business form and new model, has become an effective force in China's private foreign trade field and an important trend of international trade development. According to customs statistics, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.98 trillion yuan in 2021, up 15%. Of this, exports totaled 1.44 trillion yuan, up 24.5 percent. With the rapid development of digital economy, the five-year compound growth rate of global e-commerce has been rapidly increasing in less than three years from 2020 to 2022. "The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce platforms has given rise to the rapid development of the whole online transaction, which is a definite trend." Qinfen said.

Multiple sectors to promote the development of B2B cross-border e-commerce

In terms of industry, alibaba international website released on-site statistics show that in the past three years, new energy, machinery, automobile and motorcycle parts, home building materials, home gardening, clothing, consumer electronics, outdoor and beauty, nine major industries have seen bright development. Among them, the new energy industry has been growing at a high speed, with a cumulative growth rate of more than 1000% in three years. In addition, clothing, auto parts, sports and entertainment, building materials and other products have maintained a growth rate of about 70% - 80%.

According to the statistics accumulated at Alibaba International new Trade Festival in March, new energy, building materials, machinery, beauty makeup and sports and entertainment ranked the top 5 in terms of annual year-on-year growth in trading volume, with year-on-year growth of 55%, 25%, 15%, 10% and 5% respectively.

In the new energy sector, the transaction volume of related products on Alibaba's international website increased by about 80 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. A large number of overseas buyers are looking for the new energy equipment they need from China. Among them, the household photovoltaic system is becoming the new favorite pursued by overseas buyers. This has also led to the transformation of many factories in coastal Zhejiang province in China to produce related photovoltaic equipment, commercial and civil charging piles, inverters and other products.

And in the field of machinery manufacturing, in the first quarter of this year, small wheeled tractor inquiry buyers year-on-year growth of 100%, small excavator inquiry buyers year-on-year growth of 90%, light laser cutting machine inquiry buyers year-on-year growth of 30%.

In the auto and motorcycle parts industry, in the first quarter of the Japanese refit parts inquiry buyers increased by 700% year on year ranked the top of the industry, Tesla new energy charging pile inquiry buyers increased by 150% year on year followed, star car interior kit inquiry buyers increased by 90% year on year ranked the third.

In the home building materials sector, 3D wall panels enjoyed the highest popularity with a 3,700% year-on-year increase in inquiries, followed by modular mobile homes with a 1,200% year-on-year increase in inquiries. Barn doors came in third with a 380% increase in inquiries. At present, alibaba international website has gathered more than 500 modular mobile home overall solution suppliers, located in Foshan, Guangdong Province, Qingdao, Shandong province and other places, to meet the needs of customers in different regions of the world.

In the home and horticulture industry, the global retail market bucked the trend. In the first quarter of this year, tons of cups, food storage boxes, intelligent pet products have become popular products sold on Alibaba's international website. The number of buyers inquiring about the three products increased by 1500%, 700% and 170% respectively year-on-year. Concepts such as healthy living and environmental protection are driving a rapid increase in consumer demand in this industry.

In addition, in consumer electronics, the entire brand-name replacement market has exploded during the pandemic. Cost-effective products such as drones, AR/VR headsets and game headsets not only attract the attention of European and American consumers, but also are favored by retailers on Amazon and offline sellers.

In the outdoor sports industry, "great fitness" sports equipment with integrated functions, such as camping tents that can be opened in one second and multi-function weight lifting beds, are popular in the European and American markets. And environmental protection natural yoga mat and other "small fitness" products in Southeast Asia, India market is more popular. It has become an advantage and strategy for the development of outdoor industry to present core advantage categories to global buyers in different groups and different sites.

In the beauty industry, medical beauty has ushered in the rapid development of the whole track, according to alibaba international station estimated that there is a market size of about 200 billion DOLLARS.