[Ferro-Alloys.com] On September 18, the China-ASEAN Commodity Trading Innovation and Development Forum, hosted by the Qinzhou Municipal People’s Government and hosted by the Qinzhou Port Area Management Committee of the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone, was held in Nanning, Guangxi. The forum attracted more than 200 participants from ASEAN countries and domestic commodity trade authorities, business associations, research institutions, commodity trading platforms, manufacturers and traders.

With the theme of “Building a new China-ASEAN commodity channel and promoting new domestic and international dual circulation development”, the forum aims to make full use of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of China-ASEAN strategic partnership and the 20th anniversary of the China-ASEAN Expo to comprehensively promote Guangxi Open cooperation advantages, jointly build and share regional commodity resource allocation hubs, and serve to build a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international dual cycles reinforcing each other.

Commodity trading and circulation are key links in building regional cross-border industrial and supply chains, involving many basic industries such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, energy and chemicals, metals and minerals, and are of great significance to promoting regional economic development and the safety and stability of industrial and supply chains.

Guangxi is the only province in China that is adjacent to ASEAN on land and sea. It is the frontier and window for China’s opening up to ASEAN. Economic and trade exchanges with ASEAN continue to grow. ASEAN has maintained its status as Guangxi’s largest trading partner for 23 consecutive years. In the first half of 2023, Guangxi’s imports and exports to ASEAN were 161.38 billion yuan, accounting for 47.6% of Guangxi’s total foreign trade. Among them, bulk commodities played an important role as “ballast” for imports, and the growth rate of various categories of bulk commodities imported from ASEAN exceeded 40%. In recent years, relying on the advantages of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has accelerated the construction of a bulk commodity trading platform and achieved initial results. From January to July this year, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone imported a total of 12.792 million tons of bulk commodities, a year-on-year increase of 81.2%. It provides strong support for the strong growth of Guangxi’s foreign trade import and export, and provides a solid guarantee for the continued safety and stability of the regional industrial chain and supply chain.

Qinzhou is located in the center of the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone and is the main outlet of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. It has obvious location advantages and a prominent strategic position. It has China and Malaysia’s “two countries and two parks”, a free trade pilot zone, a comprehensive bonded zone, and national-level economic and technological development With multiple open cooperation platforms such as the Zone and the China-ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Zone, it has unique advantages in building an international land and sea trade bulk commodity storage and transportation trading base for ASEAN. In recent years, Qinzhou’s total commodity import volume has continued to rise, and its development foundation has continued to be consolidated. It has become an important hub for cooperation in commodity trading chains, supply chains, value chains, and industrial chains between China and ASEAN, and between China and RCEP.

In November 2022, the Beibu Gulf (Guangxi) Bulk Commodities Project, led by the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone Qinzhou Port Area Management Committee and jointly built by the Guangxi Free Trade Zone Qinzhou Port Area Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Southern Manganese Group The trading platform is up and running. The platform is mainly engaged in spot trading of bulk commodities. In the initial stage, it used manganese products as the entry point to form a full industrial chain supply chain service system, and gradually expanded to new energy materials, chemicals, palm oil, non-ferrous metals, Southeast Asian specialty fruits and other port-based industries. Build a regionally influential bulk commodity trading center and RMB-denominated settlement center that radiates to the southwest, serves the whole country, and is oriented to ASEAN, and has both futures and current business functions. At present, the platform has completed a cumulative transaction volume of 12.7 billion yuan, spot delivery of 4.694 million tons, online fund settlement of 1.997 billion yuan, and 117 registered member companies. The agglomeration effect of bulk commodity resource elements has initially emerged.

The forum also held a project signing ceremony, which resulted in the signing of a total of 5 projects with a total agreement value of over 29.7 billion yuan, involving bulk commodity procurement cooperation such as oil, palm oil, coal, ore, and the official launch of the Beibu Gulf (Guangxi) bulk commodity procurement project. The commodity futures and current linkage trading platform and Xinhua (Beijing Bulk) China Manganese Ore Price Index are intended to help enhance the supply chain and industrial chain value of the dual-cycle industry by providing a full-chain package trading solution, and help Qinzhou, Guangxi, build a bulk commodity chain focusing on ASEAN. Cross-border commodity trading service hub.

During the forum’s keynote speeches and guest interviews, experts and scholars also focused on how to better leverage the role of Qinzhou as a hub through transaction innovation, service innovation, and development innovation to promote the mutually beneficial and win-win development of China and ASEAN, and China and RCEP. were discussed in depth.

It is understood that this is the first commodity professional forum held by Qinzhou City and the Qinzhou Port Area of ??the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone during the China-ASEAN Expo. At the same time, the China-ASEAN Commodity Supply Chain Exhibition was also held in the B2 exhibition area of ??Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center. By building specialized commodity communication channels and cooperation platforms, we will jointly promote the innovative development of China-ASEAN commodity trading and further deepen economic, trade and industrial investment cooperation between Guangxi and ASEAN countries.

• [Editor:tianyawei]