Why can China's foreign trade achieve stability and quality improvement?

The General Administration of Customs recently released foreign trade data for the first half of this year. From the perspective of regional layout, the pace of opening up and development in the central and western regions has accelerated, 0.7 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate. From the perspective of the types of imported and exported goods, the total export of the "New Three Kinds" products, namely electric passenger cars, lithium batteries, and solar cells, increased by 61.6%, driving the overall export growth by 1.8 percentage points. The green industry has abundant momentum.

The girl who is wrapping the flower basket is called Li Siyao, and this is the sixth pair of opening flower baskets she has prepared today.

Flower shop owner Li Siyao: In the past, there might have been one or two pairs of flower baskets per day. I thought business was good today, but now, like last night, I made an all night dinner with over sixty flower bouquets.

Li Siyao's flower shop is located in Wutongqiao District of Leshan. In 2020, Leshan was awarded the title of "China Green Silicon Valley" by the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association. That is, since then, Wutongqiao District has become more and more lively. When you come to Wutongqiao District, you can see industrial workers wearing different colors of uniforms everywhere. According to local statistics, the permanent population here has increased by over 10000 people compared to three years ago.

Meanwhile, the output value of silicon materials and downstream industries in Leshan has exceeded 100 billion yuan, becoming the largest production capacity in a single region worldwide. Five of the top 10 companies in the global crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry have invested and established businesses here. Among them, Sichuan Tongwei Group, which has consistently ranked first in the global photovoltaic industry, has established its photovoltaic raw material subsidiary here.

Luo Zhou, Deputy General Manager of Sichuan Yongxiang Co., Ltd.: This is a silicon ingot. Use diamond thread to cut it into thin slices. This slice is very thin, much thinner than the hair. This is all done by equipment, all of which have been domestically produced and previously imported.

Silicon is the main raw material for semiconductor integrated circuits and solar photovoltaic cells. The extraction technology of high-purity crystalline silicon has previously been monopolized by foreign countries. In 2007, Luo Zhou's company began researching and developing silicon material production. Over the past 16 years, it has updated the 8th generation technology process, increasing the single line production from the initial 800 tons per year to the current 200000 tons, achieving a huge leap.

Luo Zhou, Deputy General Manager of Sichuan Yongxiang Co., Ltd.: We directly reduced the production cost from over 200000 yuan to 70000 yuan at that time. By our 8th generation process, the production cost can be reduced to within 40000 yuan. Currently, their production costs are relatively high internationally, generally ranging from 90000 to 100000 yuan, or even over 100000 yuan.

In addition to silicon material extraction technology, photoelectric conversion rate is also an important indicator of photovoltaic products. The photoelectric conversion rate is the efficiency of converting solar energy into electrical energy. Tongwei has established a team of 600 people to develop and continuously upgrade solar cells and components.

Xing Guoqiang, Chief Technical Officer of Photovoltaics at Sichuan Tongwei Co., Ltd.: Our battery efficiency was about 18% 10 years ago, and now the efficiency of mass production on TOPCON has reached 25.7%. Over the past decade, we have increased by nearly 8 percentage points, which is a huge technological advancement. We are at the forefront of the industry in terms of scale and quality.

With lower costs and better quality, China's photovoltaic industry has gone from initially following suit to later merging. Through the continuous enhancement of core competitiveness, it has ultimately achieved its current leading position.

Luo Zhou, Deputy General Manager of Sichuan Yongxiang Co., Ltd.: Initially, we could only produce solar grade three products, and we were barely able to reach it to produce photovoltaic products. Now we have surpassed this standard, and even some of our products meet the quality of electronic grade one products.

Through technological innovation and the promotion of industrial transformation and upgrading, Tongwei's solar cells have been ranked first in global shipments for six consecutive years. In the first half of this year, the total amount of export orders for Tongwei solar cells reached 3.3 billion yuan.

Liu Xun, a customs officer of Qingbaijiang Customs under Chengdu Customs: This is a container inspection system of our customs. If it is manually inspected, the entire process of opening, unloading, and packing will take about 3 to 4 hours. We can use this system to complete it in three to five minutes.

The stable growth of foreign trade cannot be achieved without the support of customs clearance facilitation policies. Improving customs clearance speed can boost the acceleration of foreign trade.

Tao Jiansong, Chief of Qingbaijiang Customs Supervision Section I under Chengdu Customs: When this container arrives at the railway port today, it can be shipped to the railway line, and then take the Trans-Eurasia Logistics to send it abroad. Because we have this policy of "direct shipment upon arrival at the port", we guarantee that the goods can be shipped today when they arrive at the port, so as to avoid port detention costs for enterprises.

By adopting the "direct loading upon arrival" mode, enterprises can declare customs clearance procedures in advance to the customs. If the goods arrive at the port without inspection, they can be immediately released and loaded directly. Compared to the traditional export mode, the loading time has been reduced from 2 days to 3 hours.

To assist foreign trade enterprises in going global, the General Administration of Customs has also issued 16 regulations to optimize the business environment this year, continuously improving the efficiency of cross-border logistics.

Xie Juan, Director of the Regulations and Comprehensive Business Department of Chengdu Customs: Although Sichuan is not along the border or near the sea, it gives full play to the "the Belt and Road" initiative, uses the Trans-Eurasia Logistics, the China Laos Railway, and the new land and sea channel in the west to turn its regional disadvantages into development advantages, and helps Sichuan's foreign trade maintain stability and improve quality.