Australian resources boom as trade with China reaches record high

The massive role played by Australia’s resources sector was highlighted in the recently released trade details for 2010 which saw trade with China reach $105 billion, a national record.

The details, released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, reveal that this trade produced a record overall trade surplus of $16.8 billion, compared with a trade deficit of $4 billion in 2009.

The enormous China total resulted from growth in imports and exports combined of 23.6 per cent, even as the industrialised world struggled to recover from the global financial crisis.

The country's biggest imports from China were $4 billion for computers and $3.9 billion in telecommunications equipment.

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