China-Russia trade hits a record high of over $140 bn

China's exports to Russia reached $67.6 billion with a year-on-year rise of 33.8 per cent, while its imports topped $79.3 billion worth of goods—up by 37.5 per cent compared with 2020 figures, according to a report in a Chinese state-controlled newspaper.

Russia continues to maintain its position as China's top source of energy imports which totaled 334.3 billion yuan ($52.5 billion) in 2021, an increase of 47.4 per cent, accounting for 65.3 per cent of China's total imports from the country.

Among them, imports of crude oil reached 260.2 billion yuan ($41.1 billion), an increase of 35.6 per cent while imports of coal topped 46.5 billion yuan ($7.2 billion) and natural gas 27.7 billion yuan ($4.3 billion). Imports of coal and natural gas from Russia went up by 148.7 per cent and 70.5 per cent respectively.

China significantly increased its imports of some Russian agricultural products such as rapeseed oil and beef with a year-on-year increase of 56 and 210 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, China also consolidated its advantages to export electromechanical products to Russia. In 2021, China exported 268.5 billion yuan ($42.4 billion) worth of electromechanical goods to Russia, an increase of 32.5 per cent compared with 2020, accounting for 61.5 per cent of the total value of Chinese exports to Russia in 2021.

"Russia will also further expand the supply of coal and power to China as its demand for natural gas from Russia continues to expand," the ambassador was quoted as saying.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)