On January 22, the Information Office of the Hubei Provincial People's Government held a press conference to introduce Hubei's annual foreign trade import and export situation in 2023. At the meeting, Wuhan Customs answered questions from media reporters on the customs clearance efficiency concerned by the outside world and the changes in Hubei automobile export industry. The news reporter learned from the meeting that in 2023, the overall customs clearance time of Hubei Province's import and export was 36.94 hours and 0.46 hours, respectively, which was 79.65% and 97.77% compressed compared with 2017, and the customs clearance efficiency was further improved. In 2023, China's automobile production and sales exceeded 30 million for the first time, of which more than 5 million were exported. As a traditional automobile province, in recent years, Hubei's automobile industry has continuously accumulated momentum for development, and its export scale has steadily expanded. Liao Huadong, deputy director of Wuhan Customs, said that in 2022 and 2023, the value of automobile exports in Hubei Province will continuously exceed 10 billion and 20 billion yuan. In 2023, 144,000 cars will be exported, an increase of 37.5 percent. Among them, the proportion of independent brand exports increased by 2.5 percentage points to 34.6%.
From a structural point of view, electric manned vehicles are the main export products, with annual exports of 94,000 vehicles, an increase of 47.8%, accounting for 65.3% of the total automobile exports in Hubei Province. From the supporting point of view, driven by the boom in automobile exports, in 2023, the export of auto parts in Hubei Province exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time, an increase of 21%. At the same time, the "domestic substitution" process of the parts industry accelerated, and the scale of auto parts imports declined, with 1.97 billion yuan of imports in 2023, down 16.7%, which means that the autonomy and localization of the Hubei auto industry chain has been further improved. With the rapid growth of the automobile export industry in Hubei Province, the development of related business entities is also showing a positive trend. "In 2023, the number of enterprises exporting automobiles and auto parts in Hubei Province reached 1,460, an increase of 24.3% over 2022, and the foundation of industrial development is more solid." Liao Huadong said.
