In 2026, China’s foreign trade will show strong development momentum.
The latest statistics released by the General Administration of Customs show that in the first five months of this year, foreign trade data in many regions were very eye-catching.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has achieved a high growth of 18.8%, which is strongly supported by high-end manufacturing and trillion-yuan industrial clusters.
Among them, the performance of robots that have frequently “out of the circle” in recent times is particularly outstanding.
Statistics show that for every three industrial collaborative robots called “palletizers” sold globally, one comes from the manufacturing capital of Dongguan, Guangdong.
From breaking the industry’s load limit to winning the global sales crown, Dongguan’s “palletizer” has become the “leader” in industry standards.
The “palletizer” breaks the stereotype of traditional industrial robots as “heavy and difficult to operate”. It is like a tireless “intelligent porter” that can automatically stack goods neatly and quickly on pallets, and can work side by side with ordinary workers without the need for safety fences.
The company’s self-developed AI operating system, equipped with an advanced graphical programming system, allows complex robotic arms to be “plug and play” and ordinary workers can quickly get started.
In response to the pain point of “large loads and high precision being difficult to combine” in the heavy industry, the company broke through high-voltage drive technology and launched an industrial collaborative palletizing robot with a load of up to 80 kilograms, setting a new industry record.
Compared with traditional industrial robots, the palletizing robot adopts a lightweight design, covers an area of only 2.5 square meters, weighs only 350 kilograms, has a maximum palletizing height of 2.1 meters, and has the high-speed operation capability of operating 12 boxes per minute.
Statistics show that the company will rank first in the global industrial collaborative robot market in terms of shipments with a market share of 33% in 2025.
Since the beginning of this year, Dongguan City has exported more than 160 million yuan of industrial robots. The export target market has expanded to more than 60 countries around the world. Exports to emerging markets such as Thailand, Turkey, and Mexico have doubled. The products cover welding robots, handling robots, assembly robots and other categories.
At the same time, the export of artificial intelligence-related products represented by industrial robots has grown rapidly.
In the first five months, my country’s total import and export of electronic components, computer parts, optical fiber cables and other artificial intelligence-related products was 4.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.4%.
The director of the Statistical Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs said that since the beginning of this year, my country’s import and export of artificial intelligence-related products have generally shown a trend of expansion month by month, which not only meets the needs of intelligent upgrading of domestic industries, but also provides a stable supply for the development of the global artificial intelligence industry, and the “intelligence content” of foreign trade continues to increase.
In the central region, in the first five months of this year, it ranked at the forefront of the country’s foreign trade with a high growth rate of 19.5%.
The high growth is due to the more optimized structure of the export industry. In particular, high-tech products account for more than 30% of the total exports, becoming a new driving force for foreign trade growth.
Anhui’s foreign trade increased by 32.9% in the first five months, with high-tech industries making outstanding contributions.
In a leading display screen company in Hefei, a fully automated module production line can assemble a screen every 4.5 seconds.
The person in charge of the company said that this solution can increase the resolution of the display screen by more than 2 times, the brightness by 4 times, and the lifespan by 6 times.
Relying on technological empowerment, cluster development, and continuously improving overseas layout, Hefei’s high-tech product exports have strong momentum and have maintained double-digit growth since this year.
The head of the No. 1 Supervision Section of Luzhou Customs under Hefei Customs said that since the beginning of this year, Hefei’s exports of high-tech products have grown rapidly. The exports of liquid crystal display panels, high-end vehicle displays, integrated circuits and other products have exceeded 70 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 70%, becoming the backbone of promoting the quality and efficiency of foreign trade.
Leading export growth with high-tech and high-end manufacturing is a prominent feature of my country’s foreign trade field.
According to customs statistics, in the first five months of this year, the export of mechanical and electrical products from the central region increased by 23.5%, accounting for 67.6% of the total export value during the same period, of which “three new products” increased by 85.1%, and high-tech products increased by 24.7%.
The foreign trade performance of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is also outstanding.
The latest customs data shows that in the first five months of this year, the foreign trade import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region increased by 14.4%. Especially in the month of May, both imports and exports hit monthly record highs.
According to Beijing Customs statistics, in the first five months, the import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was 2.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%, accounting for 10.1% of the country’s total import and export value.
Since the beginning of this year, the import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has maintained year-on-year growth for five consecutive months.
In May, exports were 135.89 billion yuan, an increase of 11.7%, and imports were 348.46 billion yuan, an increase of 28.1%.
In the first five months, state-owned enterprises accounted for more than half of the total in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and imports and exports increased by 15.5%; private enterprises increased by 22.9%, leading the country’s overall private enterprises in growth.
In terms of key import and export commodities, mechanical and electrical products exported by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region accounted for 60%, and exports of automobiles and lithium batteries increased by 26.2% and 137.9% respectively.
