BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s trade with Russia hit a record 1.28 trillion yuan ($190 billion) last year, the government said on Friday, even as Russia’s imports from the European Union fell on sanctions related to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
China’s 2022 exports to and imports from Russia accounted for 3% of China’s total trade, Lyu Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, told a news briefing.
Shipments of Chinese goods to Russia have grown for six months in a row.
Russia more than doubled its rail exports of liquefied petroleum gas to China in 2022 as part of the Kremlin’s drive to diversify its energy export sales, a Reuters analysis based on data from industry sources showed on Thursday.
China’s imports of Russian natural gas through the Power of Siberia pipeline are set to have risen by at least 50% in 2022, according to Russia’s top producer, Gazprom. China’s Russian crude oil imports expanded 10% on year in the first 11 months at nearly 80 million tonnes.
China’s trade with Russia slowed sharply in dollar terms in December, with exports up 8.3% from the same month last year, down from November’s 17.9% rise, according to Reuters calculations based on Friday’s Chinese customs data.
Imports from Russia rose 8.3%, slowing from a 28.5% gain in November, as a surge in COVID-19 infections following China’s abrupt end to severe restrictions weighed on domestic demand.
But with the dismantling of Beijing’s zero-COVID policy, however, Russia and China are ready to resume mutual travel as soon as possible and deepen their strategic cooperation, Zhang Hanhui, China’s ambassador to Russia, said this week.
($1 = 6.7314 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(This story has been refiled to change the date to Friday from Wednesday in sixth paragraph)
(Reporting by Liangping Gao, Joe Cash, Shen Yan and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Kim Coghill and William Mallard)