According to Chamber for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, in the first half of 2017, China’s medical device trade has recovered fully, different from the weak trend of the same period last year. According to the import and export data from the Customs, in the first half of this year, the volume of medical device trade was 19.658 billion USD, increased by 4.19% on a year-on-year basis, with increased growth rate of 3.38% compared with that in the previous year.
Among them, the amount of exports was 10.208 billion USD with a year-over-year growth of 3.15% and 10.95% higher than the same period in 2016, which has ended the decline trend in 2016; the amount of imports was 9.45 billion USD with a year-over-year growth of 5.34%, 4.53% lower than the same period last year and the import momentum slowed. The trade surplus was 758 million USD, narrowed by 18.06%.
Overall Rebound in Traditional Export Markets
USA, Japan and HK (China) are the main export markets of China and the amount of exports was 4.066 billion USD, accounting for 39.83% of the total amount of exports in China. Traditional export markets have fully recovered and exports to some of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) have grown significantly. Among them, exports to Europe, Latin America and North America increased by 3.22%, 21.15% and 7.4% respectively. In terms of growth rate, medical devices valued 170 million USD have been exported to Brazil with the largest increase of 41.41% year on year. In terms of specific category, exported goods valued over 100 million USD are still such disposable consumables and medium- and low-end diagnosis and treatment devices as massage apparatus, medical catheter, absorbent cotton, glasses, wound dressing, medical garments made up of non-woven fabrics, steel sanitary ware, X-ray contrast materials, stainless steel products, diagnosis and surgical instruments and syringes.
Medium- and High-end Diagnosis and Treatment equipments are the main import
The sources of import prominently were the US, Germany and Japan, accounting for 59.63% of the total imports. Among the top ten import countries, the amount of imports in Japan and Ireland decreased by 2.05% and 1.12% respectively, while that in other countries increased differently, among which South Korea had a biggest increase in amount by 24.64%. Of the imported categories, eight of the top 10 is diagnosis and treatment device for hospital. Among them, high-end equipment for medical diagnosis and treatment including apparatus for optical ray, color ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, X-ray tomography instrument, are all at the forefront. In terms of import growth, the growth of microscope imports was the fastest, with an increase of 26.46% year on year.
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