Foreign trade is one of the "three engines" that drive economic growth and plays a significant role in stabilizing the economy and promoting growth. Recently, the foreign trade data for Zhoushan in the first three quarters of 2024 has been released. The data shows that in the first three quarters, the total import and export volume of the city reached 281.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%.
Faced with a complex external environment this year, the city has seriously implemented various levels of decisions and deployments to stabilize foreign trade, accelerated opening up to the outside world, developed bulk commodity trade represented by the full oil and gas industry chain, and promoted Zhoushan's foreign trade to show strong resilience and vitality, continuing a good trend of stable growth. According to statistics, in the first quarter of this year, the total import and export value of the city reached 84.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%; in the first half of this year, the total import and export value of the city was 179.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.0%.
In the first three quarters, traditional industries such as ships and aquatic products made positive contributions to the foreign trade economy, especially the shipbuilding industry. According to statistics, in the first three quarters, ship exports reached 14.44 billion yuan, a growth of 132.1%, driving the overall export growth by 8.7 percentage points. This year, key ship enterprises such as Zhoushan Changhong International and Zhoushan COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry have continued to accelerate the delivery of ships.
It is understood that while the first batch of 5300 TEU container ships have been successively delivered, Changhong International has also been favored by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Greek shipowners this year, receiving orders for large LNG dual-fuel container ships and MR oil and chemical ships. On the morning of October 4th this year, Changhong International also held the naming ceremony for the first 50,000-ton oil and chemical ship "Golden Sun," showcasing the technical strength of the company's shipbuilding team. Zhoushan COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry's main business has also continued to develop steadily, completing more than 190 ship repairs and modifications in the first three quarters, and delivering 12 new ships, with continuous and steady improvement in business performance indicators. At this year's World Oil Merchants Conference, Zhoushan COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry signed a shuttle tanker construction project order with a Norwegian shipowner.
At the same time, bulk commodity trade such as crude oil, finished oil, and iron ore has stabilized the city's foreign trade "basic plate." In August this year, facing a severe external market environment, the Shulang Lake Ore Transshipment Terminal closely followed the annual production target, went all out to grasp production and improve efficiency. Not only did the monthly transshipment volume achieve new growth, but it also achieved a new breakthrough in ore distribution amidst difficulties. In that month, the terminal's iron ore transshipment volume was 4.187 million tons, setting a new single-month historical high since the port opened; the monthly iron ore throughput volume reached 7.76 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%.
In addition, in the first three quarters of this year, Zhoushan Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone also achieved a significant advancement, with import and export cargo value reaching 40.62 billion yuan, a growth of 68.4%. The scale of import and export, export, and import in the national comprehensive bonded zone ranking increased by 13, 10, and 12 positions compared to the same period of the previous year, respectively.
According to relevant persons in Zhoushan Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone, since the beginning of this year, Zhoushan Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone has actively strengthened bonded logistics and effectively promoted the import of copper concentrate and bonded ship refueling business. From January to September, the import cargo value of the comprehensive bonded zone was 27.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81.7%. At the same time, it has made great efforts to develop overseas markets, successfully built a full trade service chain for iron ore unloading, storage, mixing, and distribution, and smoothly opened up overseas markets such as Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, meeting the raw material needs of steel enterprises in the surrounding areas, and the international distribution business has initially taken shape. From January to September, the international distribution volume of iron ore was 1.7533 million tons, and the export cargo value of the comprehensive bonded zone was 12.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.8%.
Behind the eye-catching data, the efforts of Zhoushan in stimulating the internal force of foreign trade and gathering new momentum for foreign trade are indispensable. Since this year, Zhoushan has implemented the "100 Enterprises, 100 Exhibitions to Expand Markets and Increase Orders" action, deeply explored market demand, formulated two batches of foreign trade exhibition catalogs with 103 items, innovatively set up 13 Zhoushan characteristic industry exhibitions, and successively organized 55 government and enterprise groups with 90 enterprises to expand markets abroad.
The person in charge of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that in the fourth quarter of this year, the city's business system will focus on key indicators and fields according to the deployment requirements of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, seize the potential of the existing stock and the supplement of the increment, and strive to complete all the annual target tasks.
