1、 Overview of Import and Export Trade in China’s Chemical Industry

With the rapid development of China’s chemical industry, its import and export trade market has also shown explosive growth. From 2017 to 2023, the amount of China’s chemical import and export trade has increased from 504.6 billion US dollars to over 1.1 trillion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of up to 15%. Among them, the import amount is close to 900 billion US dollars, mainly concentrated in energy related products such as crude oil, natural gas, etc; The export amount exceeds 240 billion US dollars, mainly focusing on products with severe homogenization and high domestic market consumption pressure.

Figure 1: Statistics of International Trade Volume of Import and Export in the Chemical Industry of China Customs (in billions of US dollars)

Data source: Chinese Customs

2、 An Analysis of the Motivation Factors for the Growth of Import Trade

The main reasons for the rapid growth of import trade volume in China’s chemical industry are as follows:

High demand for energy products: As the world’s largest producer and consumer of chemical products, China has a huge demand for energy products, with a large import volume, which has driven a rapid increase in the total import amount.

Low carbon energy trend: As a low-carbon energy source, the import volume of natural gas has shown rapid growth in the past few years, further driving the growth of import amount.

The demand for new materials and new energy chemicals has increased: In addition to energy products, the import growth rate of new materials and chemicals related to new energy is also relatively fast, reflecting the growing demand for high-end products in the Chinese chemical industry.

Mismatch in consumer market demand: The total amount of import trade in the Chinese chemical industry has always been higher than the total amount of export trade, indicating the mismatch between the current Chinese chemical consumption market and its own supply market.

3、 Characteristics of changes in export trade

The changes in export trade volume in China’s chemical industry exhibit the following characteristics:

The export market is growing: Chinese petrochemical enterprises are actively seeking support from the international consumer market, and the export market value is showing a positive growth.

Concentration of export varieties: The fast-growing export varieties are mainly concentrated in products with severe homogenization and high consumption pressure in the domestic market, such as oil and derivatives, polyester and products.

The Southeast Asian market is important: The Southeast Asian market is one of the most important countries for China’s chemical product exports, accounting for about 24% of the total export amount, demonstrating the competitiveness of Chinese chemical products in the Southeast Asian market.

4、 Development trends and strategic recommendations

In the future, the import market of China’s chemical industry will mainly focus on energy, polymer materials, new energy and related materials and chemicals, and these products will have more development space in the Chinese market. For the export market, enterprises should attach importance to the overseas markets related to traditional chemicals and products, formulate overseas development strategic plans, actively explore new markets, improve the international competitiveness of products, and lay a solid foundation for the long-term sustainable development of enterprises. At the same time, enterprises also need to closely monitor domestic and foreign policy changes, market demand, and technological development trends, and formulate more effective strategic decisions.