China exports surge 15pc as Covid backlog cleared

China's exports unexpectedly surged by about 15 percent last month, with officials flagging rising demand for electric vehicles, but analysts cautioned the improvement partly reflects suppliers catching up with unfulfilled orders after last year's Covid disruptions.

Exports in March shot up 14.8 percent from a year ago, data from China Customs showed yesterday, snapping five straight months of declines and much better than the 7.0 percent fall forecast by analysts.

But analysts said the jump was more likely related to exporters rushing to fulfill a backlog of orders that had been disrupted by the pandemic in past months, and warned the global demand outlook remained subdued.

"The strong export growth is unlikely to sustain given the weak global macro outlook, said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

Meanwhile, imports dropped just 1.4 percent in March, smaller than the 5.0 percent decline forecast and a 10.2 percent contraction in the previous two months. Increases in crude oil, iron ore and soybeans imports in the month were offset by a decline in copper imports.

Specifically, Chinese exports to Russia jumped 47 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, customs data showed, indicating China's closer economic relations with its northern neighbor.

This came as Apple assembled more than US$7 billion (HK$54.6 billion) of iPhones in India last fiscal year, tripling production in the world's fastest-growing smartphone arena, and might make MacBooks in Thailand when accelerating a move beyond China.

The US company now makes almost 7 percent of its iPhones in India through expanding partners from Foxconn Technology Group to Pegatron Corp, people familiar with the matter said. That's a significant leap for India, which accounted for an estimated 1 percent of the world's iPhones in 2021.

Apple is also in talks with suppliers to make MacBooks in Thailand as part of the company's efforts to expand its manufacturing presence beyond China, the Nikkei reported yesterday.

Suppliers who are participating in these talks have existing manufacturing complexes in Thailand for other clients, and are discussing possible assembly and production of components and modules for MacBooks, sources from three suppliers involved in talks with Apple told the Nikkei.