|
AUSTRALIA'S trade with China hit an astonishing $105 billion last year, a national record.
This, in turn, produced a record overall trade surplus of $16.8 billion, compared with a trade deficit of $4 billion in 2009, reported The Australian.
The trade details for 2010, which the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released yesterday, underline the massive role played by the resources sector.
The enormous China total resulted from growth in imports and exports combined of 23.6 per cent, even as the industrialised world struggled to recover from the global financial crisis.
A third of the exports to China comprised iron ore and concentrates, worth $35 billion, with the next biggest products comprising coal at $5 billion and other ores at $2 billion.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
The country's biggest imports from China were $4 billion for computers and $3.9 billion in telecommunications equipment.
Japan remained the second largest overall trading partner, with total trade at $66 billion, and the USA was third at $50 billion, while South Korea was the third-biggest export market, with $22 billion sales there.
Most of Australia's exports -- 52.4 per cent -- went to East Asia last year, and 72 per cent to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum countries, with just 18.3 per cent going to the 27 countries that make up the European Union.
Exports were dominated by resources. Iron ore and concentrates shot up 64 per cent in value from 2009, to $49 billion, pipping coal sales, which reached $43 billion.
Next, a long way below, came education-related travel services, at $18 billion, just ahead of gold, which at $15 billion fell 3.8 per cent.
Read more about Australia's trading partners at The Australian
http://www.news.com.au/business/ ... rfm1i-1226084593313 |
|