Relatively many goods from China are high-tech products which are imported for further processing by Dutch manufacturers.
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this in a publication on the Netherlands’ import dependency on China, Russia and the US.
Over the past 30 years, imports of goods from China have grown at a much faster pace than total imports of goods.
China’s share in Dutch goods imports rose from 0.5 percent in 1988 to 8.9 percent in 2018.
The share has ranged between 8 and 9 percent in recent years.
In 2018, 26.3 billion of the 39.2 billion euros in imports from China was destined for re-exports, while nearly 12.9 billion euros was destined for the domestic market.
Approximately two-thirds of the goods imported from China left the Netherlands in a virtually unprocessed condition.
Imported goods from China which were destined for the domestic market included 7.6 billion euros in direct imports as input for the production of goods and services by companies in the Netherlands (intermediate imports).
The other 5.2 billion euros concerned imports of finished goods for end-use customers.
For example, consumer goods such as toys or capital goods such as machinery.
The 7.6 billion euros in imports from China for use in production processes in the Netherlands can be broken down further by technological intensity.
High-tech goods such as laptops, tablet computers and telephones account for 28 percent.
This is a high share, considering the share of such intermediate goods in total imports from all countries is only 9 percent.
At 34 percent, the highest share in intermediate imports from China was held by medium high-tech goods (worldwide share: 26 percent).
The most commonly imported medium high-tech products from China are LED lamps, lithium-ion-batteries (used mainly in consumer electronics and electric cars) and phone chargers.
The manufacturing sector accounts for the highest share of intermediate imports from China.
In 2018, industrial companies imported 4.2 billion euros worth of intermediate goods from China, equivalent to 55 percent of the total intermediate imports from China.
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In relative terms, IT and information services imported the highest share of goods from China at 36 percent of total imports in this sector.
These primarily consisted of computers and computer components.
The telecommunications sector as well imported a relatively large volume of goods from China, namely 19 percent of its total imports.
The main imports from China in this sector consisted of telephone devices.
The construction sector was the largest non-industrial user of Chinese goods.
In 2018, construction companies imported over 1 billion euros in goods from China, equivalent to 14 percent of total intermediate imports from China.
These mainly included lighting equipment, transformers, computers and LED lamps.
45 percent of intermediate imports from China undergo processing into Dutch-manufactured products and services which are destined for domestic end-use.
In other words, more than half of all intermediate imports from China are
rocessed further into goods and services for re-exporting.
In 2018, the value of imports from China which were subsequently processed for exports amounted to 2.8 billion euros.
The bulk of these imports consisted of machinery, appliances and components.
In 2018, an amount of almost 2 billion euros in such imports was needed to service the foreign market.
The second and third largest categories of imported products from China which are used in the manufacturing of export products are organic chemicals and plastics. ■