A few days ago, Nan’an released first-quarter economic data, showing that the overall economy remains stable and improving.
Among them, foreign trade rose against the trend, and the export delivery value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6.4% year-on-year, 2.7 percentage points faster than the previous year.
In recent years, faced with the dual pressures of the complex and ever-changing international situation and intensifying market competition, Nan’an has taken the special action of “Sail to the Sea, and then to Southeast Asia” as the overall focus, and continued to deepen and expand the “Three Struggles” action. The government has made every effort to create smooth channels, and companies have taken the initiative to grab orders, promoting “Nan’an’s high-quality products” to accelerate overseas and export goods to the world.
Government and enterprise resonate at the same frequency
Breaking through against the trend
Recently, the delivery workshop of Fujian Baofeng Electronics Co., Ltd. is in full swing. Workers are busy packing boxes. A batch of smart walkie-talkies equipped with APP linkage functions are about to be shipped overseas.
As a leading company in the walkie-talkie industry, Baofeng Electronics actively responded to Nan’an’s “Sail to the Sea, and then to Nanyang” special action, aimed at the track of intelligent upgrading, continued to increase investment in research and development, and successfully led the industry development trend.
In Nan’an, known as the “Hometown of Walkie-Talkies in China”, the electronic information industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading from the traditional communications field to the semiconductor and low-altitude economic fields.
As the “Stone Capital of the World”, Nan’an’s stone and ceramic industry continues to upgrade in terms of design and intelligent manufacturing.
In the first quarter, the foreign trade exports of the two pillar industries went hand in hand: the electronic information industry’s industrial export delivery value increased by 10.2% year-on-year, and the stone and ceramic industry increased by 25.7% year-on-year.
Entering the production workshop of Nanxing Marble Co., Ltd., various processing equipment are running at high speed. The company uses wire saw equipment to cut high-end stone blocks, increasing the yield rate by more than 15%.
“Compared to the same period last year, our delivery volume this year has increased significantly.” Cai Xiaoguo, general manager of Nanxing Marble, said that the main reason is that they stick to their flagship products, continuously improve the added value and artistic level of products, and work hard on processing to win the favor of domestic and overseas markets.
At the same time, the company actively participated in important international exhibitions such as the Xiamen Stone Exhibition.
Not long ago, the Nan’an Municipal Government led an economic and trade delegation to Moscow to hold the 2026 China (Nan’an) Building Materials and Home Furnishing Promotion Conference (Russian Station).
Nanxing Marble successfully signed a contract with a Russian buyer on site to provide them with high-end stone materials and overall space solutions.
Nowadays, there are many Nan’an stone companies like Nanxing Marble that have climbed up the high value chain.
Chen Liangti, deputy secretary-general of the Nan’an Stone Association, said that the surge in stone shipments in the first quarter is closely related to the cancellation of export tax rebates for 33 types of stone products starting from April 1, and many companies rushed to concentrate shipments before the window period.
In his view, this fully reflects the Nan’an stone companies’ keen market adaptability in the face of policy changes.
The key to achieving breakthroughs in Nan’an’s stone industry lies in driving development with original technology. For example, the world’s first application of stone wire saw cutting technology and the formulation of the world’s first stone wire saw cutting machinery standard are all concrete practices that promote Nan’an’s stone industry to shift from “price competition” to “value competition.”
Open internal and external channels
Innovative grouping model
In addition to taking advantage of the exhibition to expand the market, Nan’an also innovatively launched the “foreign trade cluster” development model.
As the first foreign trade cluster in Quanzhou City, Nan’an Foreign Trade Cluster District integrates the “help and agency” functions of public services such as taxation, customs, and finance, and provides a one-stop service to help Nan’an enterprises go overseas as a group.
At the same time, Nan’an has further replicated the successful experience of “foreign trade clusters”, with Pioneer Global Foreign Trade Cluster being a typical representative.
On May 8, the reporter walked into the Pioneer Global Foreign Trade Cluster and saw that a batch of sanitary toilet products were in regular boxes and were about to be sent to overseas markets.
This cluster was incubated by the Nan’an cross-border e-commerce service platform and provides a package of services such as warehousing and logistics, customs clearance and tax refunds, and assembly and processing. Currently, more than 30 companies have settled in the area, covering multiple advantageous industry categories such as fire valves, bathroom hardware, and home building materials.
“This year’s turnover has doubled compared with the same period last year, and the layout of overseas exhibition centers and overseas warehouses has played an important role.” Lin Haifeng, general manager of Pioneer Global Foreign Trade Cluster, said that taking the Philippines (Nan’an) Building Materials and Home Furnishing Exhibition Center as an example, relying on the local product selection center and overseas warehouses, customers can pick up the goods on the spot without waiting for a long logistics time after placing an order.
This year, our staff in the Philippines continued to follow up on customer needs and successfully placed an order for 40,000 office chairs.
At the same time, they seized the opportunity of local customers to learn about slate and successfully obtained an intention order for the decoration of 1,500 villas.
Looking back to China, Nan’an also set up an “outpost” in the “World Supermarket” Yiwu.
Since the opening of the Nan’an Premium (Yiwu) Exhibition and Sales Center, nearly a thousand products from dozens of Nan’an companies have been displayed here, covering industries such as plumbing and sanitary ware, fire valves, daily light industry, and walkie-talkies.
In January this year, the exhibition and sales center facilitated the first batch of overseas trade orders for Nan’an sanitary ware industry in 2026, totaling 25 containers and worth about 40 million yuan.
This series of measures is the epitome of Nan’an’s gradual construction of a full-chain international trade service system.
At present, Nan’an has built 2 foreign trade clusters, 2 international supply chain distribution centers, 15 public overseas warehouses and Nan’an Premium Products (Yiwu) Exhibition and Sales Center in Quanzhou City.
Optimizing the service environment and accurately escorting overseas exports
The overseas expansion of hard products cannot be separated from the escort of the soft environment.
In February this year, Quanzhou Council for the Promotion of International Trade was authorized by the Trade Promotion Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to carry out free sales certificate business.
At the end of March, under the guidance of Quanzhou Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Nan’an Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Nan’an enterprise Quanzhou Huanyu Paper Products Co., Ltd. successfully applied for a free sales certificate, which was the first in the city that Quanzhou Council for the Promotion of International Trade was allowed to independently issue.
“Previously, the application for a free sales certificate had to be transferred to the superior Council for the Promotion of International Trade, which took about 7 working days. Now it only takes 1 working day after the materials are reviewed and correct, and the certificate application process has been greatly optimized.” The relevant person in charge of Huanyu Paper Products said that the certificate provides authoritative endorsement of product quality and is recognized by foreign customers. It will help expand the “Belt and Road” markets such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Kazakhstan.
Liu Yongming, deputy general manager of Quanzhou Yiqiang Plastic Co., Ltd., who has just returned from the Canton Fair, has been busy receiving businessmen who came for inspection in recent days.
In previous Canton Fairs, as a Nan’an enterprise specializing in environmentally friendly lunch boxes, Yiqiang Plastic usually placed its booth in the home furnishing category exhibition area, but the effect was not obvious.
They also noticed that some colleagues set up exhibitions in the kitchen and bathroom category exhibition area, and many merchants stopped going to the home furnishing category exhibition area once they found their favorite products.
Therefore, they decided to change their exhibition strategy for this Canton Fair.
“With the assistance of the Nan’an Municipal Commerce Bureau, we added a new booth in the kitchen and bath category exhibition area on the basis of maintaining the original home furnishing category exhibition area, and the accuracy of customer acquisition has been greatly improved.” Liu Yongming said, compared with last year’s autumn handover
At this exhibition, 40% of the new valid customer business cards were added. At the same time, relying on competitive new products, 6 customers were transacted on site, with an order amount of approximately US$500,000. Another European customer has initially reached an annual purchase intention of 100 containers.
In the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, Nan’an is using a combination of “expanding markets, building channels, and improving services” to promote the quality and quantity of foreign trade.
Exports bucked the trend and rose in the first quarter, marking a solid start for the year’s “global cargo movement.”
