In 2026, under the complex economic environment, the Yangtze River Delta’s foreign trade bucked the trend and rose, delivering an eye-catching “hard-core” report card in the first four months.
As one of the regions with the most active economic development and the highest degree of openness in my country, the import and export scale of the Yangtze River Delta region hit a record high for the same period in history in the first four months of this year, fully demonstrating the strong resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy.
According to customs statistics, in the first four months of this year, the total import and export value of the Yangtze River Delta region reached 6.14 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, accounting for 37.8% of the country’s total import and export value, and its status as the “ballast stone” of foreign trade has been further consolidated.
Among them, total exports reached 3.83 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%, accounting for 41% of the country’s total exports; imports reached 2.31 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.1%.
This series of data shows that the Yangtze River Delta’s foreign trade not only continues to lead in terms of volume, but also shows a good trend of advancing hand in hand on both the supply and demand ends.
From the perspective of foreign trade products, the continuous improvement of “gold content” is a significant feature.
In the first four months, the Yangtze River Delta region exported 2.43 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, accounting for more than 60% of total exports and a year-on-year increase of 20.8%.
In particular, the export volume of high-end equipment represented by lithium batteries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships, CNC machine tools, industrial robots, etc. reached 229.76 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.5%.
High-tech, high value-added products are accelerating to replace traditional labor-intensive products and have become the new “gold-lettered signature” of the Yangtze River Delta’s foreign trade.
At the same time, the import growth of integrated circuits, metal ores, aircraft parts and other products led the way, reflecting the busy manufacturing production in the Yangtze River Delta region and the strong momentum for industrial upgrading.
As the core engine of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai Foreign Trade has shown strong leadership and explosive power.
In April 2026, Shanghai’s import and export volume reached 455.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14%. Following February and March, it once again set a new monthly record high, and has maintained a growth trend for 15 consecutive months.
In the first four months, Shanghai’s cumulative import and export volume reached 1.68 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 19.7%.
In April alone, Shanghai’s exports were 196.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%; imports were 259.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%. Export growth significantly outpaced imports, and the trade structure continued to be optimized.
Behind this excellent report card, two emerging forces are indispensable.
The first is the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
In April, driven by the global AI boom, the import and export volume of Shanghai’s integrated circuits, storage components, computer parts and other AI-related products soared to 73.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 85.7%, directly driving the city’s foreign trade growth by 8.5 percentage points.
It is worth noting that bonded logistics accounts for more than 60%, which means that Shanghai has been deeply embedded and become an indispensable key hub in the global AI industry chain supply chain.
The second is the release of dividends from green transformation.
In April, Shanghai’s “three new products” represented by electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products totaled 28.04 billion yuan in exports, a year-on-year increase of 96.3%, driving overall export growth by 8.2 percentage points.
Among them, exports of photovoltaic products surged 5.9 times, and are exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world.
Faced with the complex and ever-changing international environment, the Yangtze River Delta’s foreign trade has shown resilience beyond expectations, which is inseparable from the increasingly optimized global market layout.
The past pattern of relying on a single European and American market has been broken, and has been replaced by a good situation of diversified progress and coordinated efforts.
In response to trade frictions, the Yangtze River Delta has gradually reduced its dependence on the European and American markets, while deeply exploring markets along the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) and the “One Belt, One Road”, enhancing the resilience of foreign trade development.
In the first four months, the Yangtze River Delta’s imports and exports to countries co-building the “Belt and Road” were 3.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%; its imports and exports to other RCEP member states were 2.13 trillion yuan, a growth rate of 27.9%.
In the future, the Yangtze River Delta should strengthen the independent control of the industrial chain, solidly promote the Yangtze River Delta integration strategy, improve the supporting industrial chain in the region, and implement actions to strengthen the industrial chain, strengthen the chain, and provide a source of power for accelerating the research on key core technologies and amplifying the industrial ecological advantages.
At the same time, we must cultivate new momentum for trade. In addition to traditional trade in goods, we must deeply tap the potential of cross-border e-commerce, digital trade, service trade, green and low-carbon products, and other fields to improve the competitiveness of high-end exports.
If the Yangtze River Delta wants to continue to stabilize its foreign trade advantages, it needs to continue to deeply explore the markets along RCEP and the “One Belt and One Road”, expand high value-added and high-tech export categories such as new energy and high-end equipment, reduce its dependence on a single market and the “old three”, and enhance the resilience and diversity of foreign trade.
At the same time, it is necessary to deepen institutional opening up, continue to optimize the port service system, expand the construction of the “single window” service platform for international trade, promote mutual recognition of customs clearance, and rely on the free trade pilot zone to actively benchmark high-standard international economic and trade rules such as CPTPP to consolidate the foundation for foreign trade development.
