Trade record: trade between Russia and China for the first time approached $154 billion

From January to October 2022, the trade turnover between Russia and China increased by 33% compared to the same period in 2021 and amounted to almost $153.94 billion. The achieved value was the highest in the history of trade relations between the two countries, according to published on Monday, November 7 , data from the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China.

According to the department, in the first ten months of this year, the export of Chinese products to Russia increased by 12.8%, to $59.6 billion. Moscow, meanwhile, increased the supply of goods to Beijing by 49.9%, to $94.34 billion.

“China began to actively purchase energy resources from Russia, and also significantly increased the import of our agricultural products.

It is noteworthy that today Russia is one of the few partners of China that has a surplus in trade with China.

That is, most other countries buy more from Beijing than they sell to it, ”Alexey Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, told RT.

The steady growth of exports to China is partly due to the large-scale sanctions of the West against Moscow, experts say.

Thus, against the backdrop of US and EU restrictions in the field of trade and energy, Russian companies began to massively reorient the supply of their products to the East, said Roman Etkind, a specialist in international financial markets at the Finmir marketplace.

“Turnover has skyrocketed in recent months as a result of the reversal of trade flows.

At the same time, energy supplies have become key items of Russian exports to the Celestial Empire, as well as to India.

Our hydrocarbons are very popular in Asia, as Russian companies are ready to offer significant discounts on their products in search of new markets, ”the source explained to RT.

It should be noted that in October 2022, Russia sold its oil abroad at an average of $70.62 per barrel, while the cost of raw materials on the global market was at $90.33 per barrel.

Such data are provided in the materials of the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Nevertheless, even taking into account the discounts provided by Moscow, the volume of Russian oil and gas revenues for the second month of autumn grew by almost 16% in annual terms.

“Of course, the statistics were also reflected in the fact that the cost of energy resources on the world market as a whole has increased markedly compared to last year.

Hence such high trading volumes in monetary terms, ”Artyom Deev, head of the AMarkets analytical department, explained in a conversation with RT.

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According to Alexei Maslov, Russia buys high-tech products, microprocessors, machine tools, equipment and some building materials from China in large volumes.

In addition, the list of main import items includes consumer goods, clothing and footwear, Artyom Deev added.

“Part of the Chinese goods are supplied to us under the parallel import program.

First of all, these are equipment for the IT sector, mobile devices, tablets, laptops and smartphones.

The positions required for some sectors of the Russian economy are also being replaced: production lines, components, raw materials and materials,” Deev said.

Recall that parallel imports mean the importation of original foreign products into Russia without the consent of the copyright holders.

The government approved the corresponding initiative back in March to provide the domestic market with demanded goods against the backdrop of the departure of many foreign brands and Western trade sanctions against Moscow.

According to the estimate of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, since the legalization of parallel imports, 1.6 million tons of goods worth $12.6 billion have already been imported into Russia in this way. Such figures were given by the first deputy head of the Federal Customs Service Ruslan Davydov at the end of October.

free niche

According to Artyom Deev, along with the establishment of the supply of goods through parallel imports, Chinese business began to occupy free niches in the Russian market after the departure of Western competitors.

At the same time, enterprises from the Asian republic are trying to act carefully in this matter, Aleksey Maslov emphasized.

“Some large companies, such as Huawei, are leaving Russia, fearing secondary sanctions.

At the same time, second-tier firms are actively coming to us, because in other conditions, with high competition, they would not be able to break into our market, and they did not plan to go to Europe and the USA.

This, of course, does not mean that they have bad products.

There is, for example, a breakthrough in our automotive market, where the Chinese are actively replacing Europeans and Japanese, and the level of their products is quite high,” Maslov added.

So, against the backdrop of the departure of many Western automakers from Russia, Chinese foreign cars have already occupied almost a third (29.5%) of the country's passenger car market, as stated in the October materials of the Avtostat analytical agency.

Experts do not rule out that the trend will only increase in the future.

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It should be noted that in 2021, Russian-Chinese trade increased by 36% and for the first time reached $147.16 billion. Earlier, the authorities of both states agreed to increase the value to $200 billion by 2024.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, taking into account current trends, the task can be completed.

“It is planned that the value indicators of mutual trade at the end (2022. -

) of the year will exceed the $170 billion mark, and if the current growth rate is maintained, the goal of $200 billion will be reached next year,” said the director of the bilateral cooperation development department on October 26 Mayor Pavel Kalmychek.

Similar assessments are followed by the FCS of Russia.

Moreover, the department does not exclude that in 2022 the mutual trade turnover will reach $180 billion.

“Trade with China has been steadily growing for several years, but the events of this year have significantly accelerated the processes.

And the trade turnover continues to grow, new records can be predicted,” Ruslan Davydov noted.

According to Alexei Maslov, the expected exit of Russian-Chinese trade to the level of $170-180 billion by the end of 2022 can be called serious progress.

At the same time, as the specialist emphasized, the growth of the indicator additionally contributes to strengthening the position of the yuan in the world.

“We are now actively pegging to the money supply in yuan.

With this money, you can buy more goods either in China or in Brazil and some African countries, where the currency of the PRC is also accepted.

Previously, yuan could be easily converted into dollars and euros, but now it is more difficult to do this due to sanctions.

As a result, Western countries actually automatically strengthened the position of the yuan in the global financial market, although they did not want to.

Now it is obvious that the anti-Russian sanctions have affected the entire world market,” Maslov concluded.