The 2025 China Foreign Trade Annual Report delivered an eye-catching answer, with the total import and export value of 45.47 trillion yuan reaching a new high.
Among them, private enterprises ranked first in foreign trade with a share of 57.3%, becoming the core force in China’s foreign trade to resist risks.
In Binzhou, Shandong, this national trend is more vividly reflected.
In the first three quarters of 2025, the import and export of Binzhou private enterprises accounted for 89% of the city’s total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from last year. 1,353 private foreign trade enterprises worked together to demonstrate their strong strength.
The private economy’s deep cultivation in the global market has injected strong resilience into Binzhou’s foreign trade.
In Binzhou’s foreign trade territory, private enterprises do not work alone, but form a cluster effect that supports multiple points and blooms across the entire territory.
Taking Weiqiao Group as an example, as the leader in the aluminum industry, the import volume of aluminum ore in the first three quarters of 2025 is close to that of the whole of last year.
Its subsidiary Hongfa Aluminum has mastered the welding technology of aluminum profiles for high-speed rail carriages. Its products are sold well in Southeast Asia, South America and other places. In the first three quarters, exports reached 1.591 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61.6%. Annual cross-border e-commerce sales exceeded US$10 million.
Joy Group has built a global textile industry chain, leading the city with a total import and export volume of US$392 million in 2024. In 2025, refined wax sales revenue in the African market will increase by 31.8% year-on-year, and ZARA business sales in the European market will soar by 151.7%.
Jingbo Holdings has achieved the first export of high-performance polypropylene to Africa. It only took 9 months from product launch to overseas, and its business has spread to more than 30 countries and regions around the world.
Driven by these leading enterprises, the total import and export value of Binzhou’s foreign trade in the first three quarters exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time. Private enterprises accounted for 89% of the foreign trade, and they stabilized the basic foreign trade market in a complex international environment.
Innovation is the core gene of the private economy and has also provided a strong driving force for the upgrading of Binzhou’s foreign trade.
The 2025 China Foreign Trade Annual Report highlights the trend of “exports moving towards innovation and excellence”. Binzhou private enterprises have accurately grasped this rhythm, broke through the “stuck neck” problem through innovation, and opened up a high-end track.
Joy Group has nearly 400 key core technologies. After conquering Seawool’s hard raw silk technology, it became a supplier of Uniqlo. AI-powered wax cloth design leads African fashion trends.
Weiqiao Group focuses on upgrading the aluminum industry, and high-end aluminum profiles are highly favored in overseas markets.
Jingbo Holdings brought five core technology matrices including high-performance polypropylene and POE to Chinaplas, and enhanced its global voice with its high-end chemical products.
Zhongyu Food relies on the advantages of the entire industrial chain “from field to table” to allow high-quality grain and oil products to go abroad and become a new highlight of agricultural foreign trade.
Under the guidance of innovation, Binzhou’s private foreign trade has got rid of the dilemma of low-price competition. The proportion of high-end product exports continues to increase, which is consistent with the upgrading direction of the country’s high-tech product export growth of 13.2%, and its status in the global value chain continues to improve.
The vigorous development of the private economy is inseparable from the good ecology created by the collaboration between government and enterprises.
Binzhou fully realizes that the growth of private enterprises, the “main force”, requires good environmental support. Relying on the location advantages of the Yellow River Delta, and with the help of transportation conveniences such as the “Binhai-Europe” and “Binxin-Europe” sea-rail intermodal trains and the resumption of navigation on the Xiaoqing River, Binzhou provides a smooth logistics channel for aluminum products, textiles, chemicals and other goods to go out to sea.
In terms of policies, the government has implemented targeted support and built a cross-border financial service platform through tax incentives, financial support, foreign-related legal services and other measures to help companies solve the problem of foreign exchange collection and settlement.
At the same time, the demonstration role of “two industry integration” pilot projects such as Weiqiao, Jingbo, and Joyful will be used to promote the upgrading of the supply chain.
In addition, the completion and opening of Binzhou Health Technology Vocational College will provide professional talents for private foreign trade enterprises in various industries and provide a solid talent guarantee for the sustainable development of private enterprises.
