Zhong Zhou

A research report of the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China's commodity market has seen annual transaction growth of above 15%, and become an important organization form of commodity circulation.

By the end of 2008, China had a total of 4,567 commodity markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million. The figure represented an increase of 446 over the previous year and an increase of 1,309 over 2002 when China just joined the WTO. These markets had a total of 2.839 million booths, a total floor space of 210 million square meters and a total annual transaction value of RMB5.2458 trillion, up 5.9%, 7.1% and 19% respectively over the previous year and up 29.6%, 1.2-fold and 1.6-fold respectively over the time when China joined the WTO. The annual transactions surpassed RMB2 trillion in 2003, RMB3 trillion in 2005, RMB4 trillion in 2007 and RMB5 trillion in 2008, with average annual growth of over 15%.

Super-large markets have seen rapid development. In 2008, the number of commodity markets each with annual transactions of over RMB1 billion hit 1,005, an increase of 150 over the previous year and 590 over the time when China joined the WTO, among which were 108 markets each with annual transactions of RMB5-10 billion, an increase of 19 over the previous year and 80 over the time when China joined the WTO; 89 markets each with annual transactions of over RMB10 billion, an increase of 18 over the previous year and 65 over the time when China joined the WTO. In 2008, the markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB1 billion contributed to 79.5% of the total transactions of the commodity markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million, 1.6 percentage points higher than the previous year and 15.6 percentage points higher than the time when the country joined the WTO.

China's top RMB100 million commodity market recorded a transaction value in excess of RMB90 billion in 2008, which was RMB910 million more than the figure for the previous year and RMB80 billion more than the figure for the year when China joined the WTO. The transactions of the 100th largest market hit RMB8.56 billion in 2008, compared with RMB3.11 billion in 2002. In 2008, the average booth area of the commodity markets each with transactions in excess of RMB100 million reached 74.8 square meters, the annual transactions of each booth hit RMB1.848 million, and the annual transactions on unit booth operating area amounted to RMB24,714.9, up 1.2%, 12.4% and 11.1% respectively over the previous year, and up 58.8%, 1-fold and 28.5% respectively over the time when China entered the WTO.

The bigger the market scale, the bigger the annual transactions of each booth. The average annual transactions of each booth in the markets with annual transactions in excess of RMB10 billion hit RMB5.838 million, 8-fold as big as that for the markets each with annual transactions less than RMB1 billion, 1.6-fold as big as that for the markets each with annual transactions between RMB1-5 billion, and 18% more than that for the markets each with annual transactions of RMB5-10 billion. The annual transactions over RMB10 billion of their unit business area amounted to RMB64,000, over 5-fold as big as that for the markets each with annual transactions less than RMB1 billion, 1.6-fold as big as that for the markets each with annual transactions between RMB1-5 billion, and 40.3% more than that for the markets each with annual transactions of RMB5-10 billion.

In 2008, the number, booth number, business area and transactions of specialized markets stood at 3,319, 1.798 million, 160 million sq m and RMB4.22031 trillion respectively, taking a weight of 72.7%, 63.3%, 75.2% and 80.5% respectively among all markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million. And the weight was respectively 5.7, 4.4, 7 and 9.3 percentage points higher than the previous year. Compared with the previous year, the growth rate hit 20.3%, 13.7%, 18.1% and 34.5% respectively.

In 2008, the number, booth number, business area and transactions of general markets stood at 1,248, 1.041 million, 52.548 million sq m and RMB1.02548 trillion respectively, taking a weight of 27.3%, 36.7%, 24.8% and 19.5% respectively among all markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million. And the weight was generally on the decline, and the growth rate was all below 10%, in which the business area showed negative growth.

The eastern areas, the main base of China's industrial production, have seen fast growth of commodity markets. The six provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and Liaoning took a weight of 54.9% and 60.2% respectively in the nation in terms of the number of markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million and the transactions value. Their market number and transactions also posted an increase of 7.6% and 15.5% respectively over the previous year and an increase of 31.5% and 1.5-fold respectively over the time when China became a WTO member. Their annual transactions on unit business area came to RMB24,900/sq m in 2008, up 5.7% over the previous year. The three main economic areas in the east, namely the Bohai rim, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, took a national weight of 39.7% in terms of market number and 54.8% in terms of transactions, and the market number and transactions also saw year on year increase of 8.9% and 15.6% respectively. The annual transactions on unit business area amounted to RMB35,800/sq m, higher than all markets each with annual transactions in excess of RMB100 million  by 44.7%.