CANBERRA, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- China has replaced the United States to become Australia's biggest source of imports.

    In the year to September, China, which includes Hong Kong, accounted for 14.3 percent of Australian imports, Australian Associated Press (AAP) quoted new figures released Friday as reporting.

    This compared to 13.9 percent which the United States accounted of Australian imports in the same period.

    The third is Japan, which accounted for 11.3 percent of the imports.

    In the past four years, Chinese imports doubled in value to 21.8 billion Australian dollars (16.6 billion US dollars), compared with the United States, with imports from there worth 21.2 billion Australian dollars (16.1 billion US dollars).

    During September, when Australia imported a record 13.8 billion Australian dollars (10.5 billion US dollars) worth of merchandise and goods, China accounted for 16 percent of the value of products brought through the nation's ports.

    Chief equities economist Craig James of CommSec, Australia's largest retail broker, said consumers would be the big winners as they benefited from cheap and quality goods from China.

    "China has now become the main source of Australian imports and its importance should continue to soar in coming months and years," he was quoted by AAP as saying.

    "The continued influx of high quality Chinese goods at cheap prices will keep downward pressure on margins for Australian manufacturers and retailers," he said.

    "The bottom line is that companies will need to get used to super-competitive markets," he said. Enditem