Economic exchange

Poland is China's largest economic partner in Central Europe, both in export and import of goods. There is a high demand for Polish commodities such as natural resources (copper) and components of machinery and equipment (i.e. mining, aerospace). In 2004, Poland became a full member of the European Union, and since then Polish goods have come to be seen in China as products of a high European quality, and thus it has had a significant impact on the growth of interest in importing Polish goods. It should be noted that imported goods from China can reduce the cost of Polish companies using Chinese materials and intermediates, which are then exported to EU countries.

Mutual investment

According to available estimates, the total value of Polish investments in China amounted to about 169 million USD. Most of them have been realized in the manufacturing and chemical industries. The construction of Selena SA factory producing chemistry products in Nantong Economic Zone is an investment of 27 million USD. The company Kopex manufacturing mining machinery in Shandong Province in 2008 opened a factory worth 10 million USD. At the beginning of 2013 they also signed a 4.9 million USD deal to supply combines.

The total value of Chinese investments in Poland in the years 2005 - 2010 was approximately 140 million USD. They were related mainly to the sectors of real estate, industrial production (mainly electronics) and the service sector. The largest include: construction of a factory computers in Legnica Special Economic Zone and building monitors' fabric in Żyrardow. The acquisition of the civil part of Stalowa Wola Steelworks is so far the largest investment in Poland (about 97 million USD). Warsaw branch of Huawei company currently serves whole Northern and Eastern Europe. Opening in 2012, branches of Chinese banks in Warsaw - the Bank of China and ICBC are mainly aimed at financially supporting their businesses planning to enter the Polish market. Despite the fact that in 2012 Chinese companies have not carried out any investment in Poland, this year already brought 13 plans.

The commodity structure of trade

According to the Ministry of Economy, trade between Poland and China amounted to 19.2 billion USD. Exports to China totaled 1.7 billion USD, while imports from China 17.5 billion USD.
The largest part of Polish exportare metallurgical products. Since 2005 the first place is copper. Currently, buying scrap by Chinese steel mills is also very popular. Polish companies are selling products related to the electrical and chemical industries (such as caprolactam). These three categories account for more than 78.7% of Polish exports. More importantly, rapidly expanding its position product is Polish meat. Its' exports in 2012 amounted to 49.5 million USD, and in January 2013 it was already the amount of 12 million USD.

According to the above data, the largest share of Polish imports are products from the engineering industry (35%). Other important categories are trademarks of the products of the chemical industry, with a share of (17%), mineral products (14%) and metallurgical products (10%), and diverse items such as furniture. In the list of the most important commodities imported from China to Poland the first place is electronics industry products and telecommunications equipment.

Trade between Poland and China saw a huge disparity between exports and imports - 1:10 against Poland, but the long-term trend of bilateral trade is optimistic.

The main recipients of Polish goods are: Shanghai (28.9%), Jiangsu Province (15.3%) and Beijing (12.8%).

(Last updated: 16.05.2013; Data source: Embassy of Poland in China, 2012)