S China province sees drastic surge in Q1 ship exports

GUANGZHOU, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Guangdong Province, an economic power house in southern China, sold abroad 42,000 vessels in the first quarter of this year, a growth of 230 percent on the same period of last year, local customs house said Sunday.

The exports were valued at 410 million U.S. dollars, up 7.2 percent.

Of the total export value, 49.1 percent, or 200 million U.S. dollars, is recorded by foreign-funded companies, up 14.2 percent, and 39.4 percent, or 160 million dollars, by state-owned enterprises, down 8.8 percent.

Private businesses posted a growth of as fast as 65 percent in ship exports in the three-month period, the local customs noted.

Most of the province's ship exports went to Hong Kong and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members. Sales to the European Union declined 50.5 percent to 35.57 million U.S. dollars.

German exports suffer in February amid world recession

BERLIN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Data released on Wednesday showed German exports in February 2009 continued a falling trend, which were 23.1 percent lower than the same period in 2008, as the world is witnessing a worsening economic recession.

Germany exported commodities worth 64.8 billion euros (85.4 billion U.S. dollars) and imported commodities worth 56.2 billion euros in February 2009, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Wednesday.

Exports were 23.1 percent and imports 16.4 percent below the respective February 2008 levels, Destatis said. Compared with January 2009, exports decreased by 0.7 percent and imports by 4.2 percent.

"The figures show that Germany is suffering particularly under the collapse in global demand," the German news agency DPA quoted a statement from Commerzbank as saying.

The surplus of trade in February also suffered a great loss compared with February 2008, said Destatis. The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 8.9 billion euros in February 2009, while in February 2008, the surplus amounted to 17.1 billion euros.

Analysts predict that more bad news will come in the future. A study published by Unicredit group said German exports were likely to drop further in the next few months, as the demand has been seriously hurt by the worldwide recession.