China's export-oriented provinces are lowering their trade growth targets, due to a pessimistic outlook for external markets.

These provinces, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Fujian, have set their targeted trade growth rate for 2013 at around five percent, compared with around eight percent set at the beginning of last year.

Guangdong Province, which accounts for up a quarter of China's total trade volume, was the only province that managed to meet its growth goal for 2012. It achieved a growth rate of 7.7 percent. Jiangsu Province saw its trade volume gain 1.6 percent last year, far less than targeted.

Zhejiang Province achieved only 0.9 percent growth in trade volume, and its new year target has not yet been released. Fujiang Province and Shandong Province have seen their trade volume jumped by 8.6 and 4.1 percent respectively. Industry insiders expected that given the uncertain international trade environment, China may only see single digit trade growth this year.

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