According to Haikou Customs, ASEAN has now been Hainan's largest trade partner for three consecutive years. Over the first ten months of 2024, bilateral foreign trade totaled 48.29 billion yuan ($6.7 billion), up 66.5% over the same period in 2023, and increasing at a rate 45.3% faster than Hainan's overall trade.
In recent years, Hainan has added more trade routes to ASEAN nations as well as facilitated logistics channels to assist in trade development. This April, two international shipping routes were set up between ASEAN and the Xiaochantan wharf of Yangpu Port, opening up transportation channels for international trade containers to be transferred through Yangpu to China's main shipping ports. Over the first ten months of the year, Hainan's trade with Indonesia exceeded ten billion yuan ($1.4 billion), reaching 11.14 billion yuan ($1.54 billion), an increase of 17.1%. Meanwhile, trade with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Laos also increased exponentially.
At the same time, beneficial policies have boosted Hainan product releases on the ASEAN market. Over the last three years, Hainan companies have taken advantage of China - ASEAN Free Trade Area Certificate of Origin to feature products on the ASEAN market. The number of Certificates of Origin issued by Haikou Customs increased from just 364 in 2021 to 1,905 in 2023. By Oct. 2024, 1,919 certificates had already been issued, surpassing the previous year's total. These certificates assist Hainan companies by eliminating customs duties and reducing the amount of time needed for products to clear customs.
Looking more closely at international trade between Hainan and ASEAN, you can see that Hainan’s exports to ASEAN include not only cars, steel, furniture, auto parts, and other large items but also pharmaceuticals, fruit, aquatic products, household paper products, and other small items. Over the first ten months of 2024, Hainan's exports of electromechanical products to ASEAN increased by 616.5%, while exports of steel products rose by 111.2%. Exports of lychee, frozen cuttlefish, squid, tilapia, peppers, coconut products, and other specialty Hainan agricultural items are also on the rise.
More and more durian, mangosteen, and other specialty fruits, coffee, edible oils, coconut, and other products originating in ASEAN countries have entered Hainan, enriching the province's consumer market. In September, giant river prawn fry and other specialty ASEAN aquatic products were imported to Hainan, assisting in the healthy development of Hainan's aquaculture industry.
Hainan has also strengthened cooperation with ASEAN nations in the petrochemical industry, which has resulted in increasing trade of petrochemical products. Over the first ten months of the year, Hainan's refined oil product exports such as gasoline and aviation fuel totaled 7.99 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), an increase of 17.7%, and exports of PET flakes reached 1.5 billion yuan ($0.2 billion), up 58.7%.
