Sichuan Economy and Trade Trends Monthly

January 2014

Published by CCPIT Sichuan Council

Contents

Macro Economy

2013 National Economy and Social Development Plan Ｅxecuted Smoothly

In 2013, the economic society of Sichuan realized and maintained stable development. Gross regional domestic product of Sichuan topped RMB2626.08 billion with year-on-year growth of 10%. Local public fiscal revenue achieved RMB278.11 billion with an increase of 14.5%.

(I) Stable growth of investment and consumption

Fixed-asset investment of whole society completed RMB2104.92 billion, up by 16.7%. Investment for three major fields, that is, infrastructure, industrial development, people's livelihood and social undertaking, completed RMB1672.42 billion. Sichuan Provincial key projects completed investment of RMB468.86 billion. Projects like Leshan-Ya'an Expressway, Chengdu-Nanbu-Bazhong Expressway, Daocheng Yading Airport and Guandi Hydropower Station have been completed. Projects including Jinping First-stage and Second-stage Hydropower Station and Suining-Ziyang-Meishan Expressway were increasingly promoted. And projects such as the expansion and innovation of Xi'an-Chengdu Passenger Dedicated Line, Chengdu-Guiyang Railway and Chengdu-Kunming Railway were launched.

Moreover, the retail sales of consumer goods totaled RMB1035.54 billion, increasing by 13.9%.

(II) New progress on industrial restructuring effort

Added value of primary industry completed RMB342.56 billion with growth of 3.6%. 。

For secondary industry, it reached RMB1357.9 billion with growth of 11.5%. All industries saw the added value up by 11% to RMB1157.85 billion, particularly, for industry above designated size, the increase was 11.1%. Added value of construction industry realized RMB200.05 billion, increasing 14.5%. For seven competitive industries, their added value accounted for around 78% of that of industries above designated size. Concerning output value, high and new technology industry and strategic emerging industry broke RMB1 trillion and RMB500 billion respectively, and investment to technical transformation completed RMB460 billion.

Tertiary industry completed the added value of RMB925.61 billion with growth of 9.9%. Industries including finance, logistics, e-commerce and tourism realized fast development. Financing scale of whole society reached RMB713.71 billion, transaction scale of e-commerce market broke RMB1.1 trillion and total income from tourism realized RMB387.74 billion. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 28)

Foreign Trade

Exit and Entry Passengers in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport up 25.2%, among the first ranks in China

In 2013, the number of airplanes from and to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport exceeded 250,500 (average daily over 686), putting through more than 33.4 million passengers. In virtue of increasing international routes and 72-Hour Visa-free Transit Policy, passengers to and from the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in 2013 reached 2,453,800 with year-on-year growth of 25.2%, among the first ranks in China.

In 2013, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport newly started 4 regular international passenger airlines to Melbourne, Frankfurt, Doha and London as well as 3 chartered international travel routes. It also opened the regular passenger lines to 8 domestic destinations including Daocheng and Qianjiang, etc. Up to now, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has had 167 destination cities with total 222 air lines, among which 71 are international (regional) air lines. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 2)

Sichuan Service Trade Topped USD10 Billion

In 2013, total export-import volume of service trade in Sichuan topped USD10 billion for the first time. Compared with USD6.57 billion in 2012, total export-import volume of service trade of Sichuan in 2013 increased to USD10.1 billion with year-on-year growth of 49.6%.

So, the proportion of service trade taking up in foreign trade increased to 13.5%, 3.5 percentage points higher than last year. Year-on-year growth rate of service trade export and import accounted for 56.4% and 42% respectively, both higher than national average growth rate. Especially, its productive sector saw the sharp growth. In 2013, export of other commercial services featured with distribution, detection and maintenance, consultation and advertising realized 1.3 times' increase rate on year-on-year basis. Export of Sichuan provincial international transport service increased by 41% on year-on-year basis, greatly raising the level of Sichuan modern service industry cored with the construction of western finance center, logistics center and commercial and trade center. In terms of import, technology import contracts concluded in Sichuan achieved the value of USD720 million totally, including contract value over USD100 million concluded by Sichuan Hyundai Motor Company to introduce Korean technologies. Proprietary right of Sichuan about import increased to 93.3% year on year. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 9)

Actual Foreign Investment in 2013 Exceeded USD10 Billion

Last year, Sichuan saw its foreign trade top USD70 billion and actual foreign investment over USD10 billion for the first time. The retail sales of consumer goods broke through RMB1 trillion. It was the first time that the proportion of value-added of service industry in GDP realized recovery in recent 10 years and it was anticipated that value-added of service industry throughout 2013 reached RMB900 billion. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 13)

Sichuan Goods Trade in 2013 Topped USD60 Billion

In 2013, accumulated total export-import volume of goods trade in Sichuan reached USD64.59 billion, which was the first time that foreign trade scale of Sichuan goods broke through USD60 billion and set a new record.

Compare with 2012, import and export of Sichuan goods trade in 2013 increased by 9.2%, higher than Chinese overall increase rate in the same period. The export and import increase rate of Sichuan during the same period was 9.1% and 9.5% respectively. In December 2013, increase rate of both import and export volume dropped at some degree on a month-on-month basis. Industry analysis showed that Sichuan export and import trade had entered a phase of "shift", so, increase in unit's digit will be quite normal in future days.

Moreover, increase rate of Sichuan processing trade import and export dropped as well in 2013, which dragged Sichuan foreign trade increase rate of 2.6 percentage points. Customs analyzed that main reason for this was developed economic entities' market shrink of some mechanical and electrical products such as portable computer and integrated circuit. What is corresponding to the situation was that bilateral trade scale between Sichuan good trade and developed economic entities such as Europe and America and Japan dropped greatly in 2013. At the same time, with the demand of optimizing product structure according to emerging market, export of six competitive and features products including Sichuan clothing, shoes, textile, furniture, plastic products and bags and suitcases increased greatly and it accounted for greater proportion in overall export of Sichuan. In the same period, bilateral trade volume between Sichuan and ASEAN and Hong Kong increased by 37.3% and 69.4% respectively and the increase rate of bilateral trade with emerging markets such as UAE and Russia all exceeded 60%. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 18)

Industries

Timber Exchange Center Set by Tianfu Mercantile Exchange

Tianfu Mercantile Exchange set Timber Exchange Center and successfully acquired North China Timber Exchange Market located in Erlianhaote City of Inner Mongolia. Timber Exchange Center is the first timber e-commerce platform in China that has warehouse receipt and bill of lading transactions.

In 2014, Tianfu Mercantile Exchange will successively establish North China Timber Exchange Market (Inner Mongolia), East China Timber Exchange Market (Taicang, Shanghai), South China Timber Exchange Market (Shunde, Guangdong) and Southwest China Timber Exchange Market (Chengdu, Sichuan) in China. In the first half of 2015, it plans to establish Northeast China Timber Exchange Market (Harbin, Heilongjiang) and Northwest China Timber Exchange Market (Xi'an, Shaanxi). (Sichuan Daily reported on January 3)

Annual Sales of Seed Industry Strives to Exceed RMB6 Billion in 2015

At present, Sichuan has 136 seed industrial enterprises, however, none of them is listed in the market and the small and scattered structure of seed enterprises undergoes no fundamental changes. In following days, Sichuan will try hard to promote annexation and reorganization of enterprises, as well as the listing and financing of seed enterprises. On function division, current heated phenomenon of studying seeds will be changed. That is, scientific research institutions and colleges and universities will be supported to have materials innovation research, enterprises will make efforts to conduct commercialized seed breeding to promote the legal flow of seed breeding talents, technologies and resources into enterprises. Sichuan aims to realize the objectives that annual sales revenue of seed industry has reached over RMB6 billion and 3-4 seed enterprises have been listed in the market by 2015. Besides, seeds of main crops have been upgraded once with improved variety having coverage of over 96%. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 10)

Annual Container Throughput of Luzhou Port Broke through 200,000 TEU

In 2013, container throughput of Luzhou Port achieved 201,300TEU, which was the first time that container throughput of Luzhou Port broke through the gate of 200,000TEU, 48.91% growth on year-on-year basis. It accounted for 76.7% of container throughput of all ports in Sichuan, ranking the first in whole Sichuan as always.

In 2013, cargo throughput of ports above designated size in Sichuan realized 50.38 million tons, among which 24.46 million tons were cargo throughput of Luzhou Port. Container throughput of all ports in Sichuan realized 261,700TEU, among which 201,300TEU were container throughput of Luzhou Port. As the main port for Sichuan water transport located on golden waterway of Yangtze River, Luzhou Port's annual container throughput increased by 100,000 TEU again in only two years after its annual container throughput first breaking through 100,000TEU in 2011, showing obvious great development rate.

Looking from cargo constitution, the proportion of machinery, automobile and light industry food increased continuously and that of raw material-type cargo like ore, coal and river sand dropped gradually year after year, sending out a signal of industry transformation and upgrading in cargo source place.

Looking from the source of container, the number of containers from Chengdu Economic Development Zone accounted for 88.62% of container throughput of Luzhou Port and number of containers from Chengdu took up 55.32% of annual total container throughput of Luzhou Port, all of which showed that Luzhou Port is an important window and channel for the opening up of Chengdu Economic Development Zone and even whole Sichuan. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 11)

Technology Contract Volume of Chengdu in 2013 Set Another Record

Technology contract sum of Chengdu in 2013 maintained rapid and steady growth after it realized RMB10 billion in 2012. Up to the end of December 2013, the registration number of Chengdu technology contracts broke through 10,000 with year-on-year growth of 13.3%. Transaction amount of technology contracts reached RMB14.43 billion with year-on-year growth of 35.5%, accounting for 85% of total transaction amount of Sichuan. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 13)

On-stream Projects

Project of Jianyang-Pujiang Expressway Started

On December 26, 2013, the project of Jianyang-Pujiang Expressway was started. Passing the outer edge of south Chengdu Tianfu New District, the project starts from Hefeng Town of Jianyang, passes through Renshou, Pengshan, Dongpo and Pujiang, and ends at Tianhua Town of Pujiang County with total length of 127.4km, of which 79.9km is in Meishan territory. It is anticipated that the project needs total investment of RMB15.775 billion, has 6 lanes in two directions, design speed of 100km/h, 97 bridges, 5 tunnels, 6 hub interchanges and 11 ordinary interchanges. It is anticipated that the project will be open to traffic in the end of 2016. Up to then, drive time from Jianyang to Pujiang will be shortened to 1.5h from previous 3h, and that from Meishan to Jianyang and Pujiang will also be reduced with over half an hour. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 3)

Convention & Exhibition Economy

Chengdu Jewelry Fair 2013 Held

Grandly held in 1# Pavilion of Chengdu Century City New International Convention & Exhibition Center, Chengdu Jewelry Fair 2013 is the largest and most authoritative jewelry fair example in western China and it contributed a lot to the economic development of western China. Chengdu Jewelry Fair 2013 was co-sponsored by Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China (GAC), Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of Sichuan and Shenzhen Gold & Jewelry Association and supported by Sichuan Bureau of Expo Affairs.

Chengdu Jewelry Fair 2013 had an exhibition area of 11,000㎡ with more than 500 booths and lots of Chengdu local excellent brand gold stores such as Love Gold Store, Chengdu Tianxinyang Gold Industry Co., Ltd. and Liuxi Jewelry also participated in the Fair proactively. On the Fair, Shanghai Yuyuan Gold & Jewelry (Group) Co., Ltd., Derier, JWL, Angel Tears and Shenzhen Xingzhongtai Gemstone Co., Ltd. displayed the most fashionable design and style, helping visitors view fashion trends of international jewelry in advance. Besides, exhibits displayed on the Fair included new-style wedding rings throughout China, investment gold bar, top-grade ruby and sapphire jewelry, fashionable K gold ornaments, jade, Tahiti black pearl, south seas gold pearl, crystal, emerald and tourmaline, etc. (Sichuan Daily reported on January 2)