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Bloomberg

China’s exporters are shrugging off the surging yuan, even as it nears its strongest level since 2015.
Growth in outbound shipments is expected to build on January’s double-digit increase to climb 6 per cent this year, though the yuan has posted a 9 per cent gain over the past year. While a rising domestic currency over time makes exports more expensive, trade is not suffering yet.
Things that can explain trade’s robust performance despite the relative costliness of the yuan: strong external demand, active hedging and a shift towards more hi-tech products. Resilience in exports is much needed, as a deleveraging drive and deteriorating China-US trade relations still threaten the sustained expansion of the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s got a trade problem that can’t be solved by Belt and Road
“Strong external demand is the dominating factor supporting China’s exports growth, which will remain resilient throughout this year thanks to global economic recovery,” said Nathan Chow, senior economist at DBS Bank Hong Kong. “As long as the yuan’s appreciation is orderly and gradual, it will not dent outbound shipment significantly.”

The yuan traded at 6.3050 per dollar late on Monday in Shanghai, close to a level it had last visited in 2015 before China rocked global markets through a surprise devaluation of the currency.
Here are four factors that will shield exports from a surging yuan:
Demand to stay strong
Some of China’s largest trading partners, including the US, Japan and Germany, have been enjoying a strong economic recovery, with the three nations’ manufacturing purchasing managers indexes climbing in the past year, showing expansion. The growth momentum will continue to boost China’s exports this year, providing that a recent sell-off of global stocks and bonds does not return with a vengeance, according to DBS’s Chow.
China’s exports remain strong in January as imports grow 30pc
Peers are rising too
The yuan’s rally against the currencies of its main trading partners, apart from the dollar, has not been that steep, meaning China’s exported goods are actually not becoming as pricey everywhere. The Bloomberg replica of the CFETS RMB Index, which measures the Chinese exchange rate against 24 peers, climbed 1.2 per cent this year, trailing the currency’s more than 3 per cent appreciation versus the greenback. The yuan is still weaker against peers than it was at the start of 2016.




“In trade-weighted terms, it has not moved a lot,” said Louis Kuijs, chief Asia economist at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong. “The competitiveness of Chinese exporters against their key competitors globally has not worsened much.”
Exporters hedge more than ever
China’s exporters have become more adept at using hedging tools to defend their profits. Jake Tai, a manager at a winter footwear maker in the eastern city of Nanjing, is settling more deals in yuan and euro, using currency forwards to reduce foreign-exchange risks and shortening the length of sales agreements to one month or quarter from one year previously.
“Those tools are like a down coat in the winter,” said Li Liuyang, a Shanghai-based analyst at China Merchants Bank who forecast the ratio of trade orders settled in yuan and euro to increase this year. “China’s exporters are much more adept at changes and challenges now.”
China says yuan no longer a one-way bet as currency slides against US dollar
More value-added exports
China’s outbound shipments have become less sensitive to increases in the yuan over the years, as an increasing portion of the products are so-called value-added re-exports, said Iris Pang, an economist at ING Group in Hong Kong. That means local companies first import parts for production and then sell the final goods overseas, so they benefit from currency appreciation as the costs of raw materials are lower, she said.
High value-added electronics and equipment manufacturing exports increased quickly in 2017, with the outbound shipment of locally made vehicles surging 27.2 per cent and that of computers jumping 16.6 per cent, Huang Songping, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs said in a briefing last month.


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China economy

In China, exporters are shrugging off the stronger yuan

After a double-digit rise in outbound shipments in January, they are expected to climb 6 per cent this year. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: A China yuan note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

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China Economy

Currency has gained 9 per cent in the past year, but trade isn’t suffering yet


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