Recently, Shenzhen’s 2025 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin was released.
Data show that Shenzhen’s foreign trade will move forward under pressure in 2025, with the total import and export volume for the year reaching 4,553.389 billion yuan, an increase of 1.4% over the previous year. Among them, exports fell slightly, imports increased sharply, and high-tech products and foreign-invested enterprises exploded, showing the overall steady improvement, the remarkable characteristics of new industries and optimized structures.
The communiqué shows that Shenzhen’s total foreign trade volume in 2025 was 4,553.389 billion yuan, a record high, and continues to rank first among mainland cities.
Among them, exports were 2,738.781 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.6%; imports were 1,814.608 billion yuan, an increase of 8.0%. Imports ranked first among large and medium-sized cities in the mainland for 33 consecutive years.
Despite a slight decline in exports, high-tech products bucked the trend and surged, with exports reaching 1,276.595 billion yuan, an increase of 10.1% over the previous year, accounting for 46.6% of total exports.
Regarding the reasons for Shenzhen’s foreign trade’s “slight decrease in exports and high increase in imports” and the surge in exports of high-tech products in 2025 and the industrial signals released, relevant experts analyzed that the decline in Shenzhen’s foreign trade exports in 2025 was mainly affected by factors such as high inflation and shrinking demand in the world’s major economies, the overall weak external market, the decline in competitiveness of some traditional labor-intensive products, trade barriers and supply chain restructuring, which are normal fluctuations during the structural adjustment period.
The high growth in imports is related to the expansion of high-tech industries, the continued recovery of domestic demand, and the implementation of policies to stabilize foreign trade.
From the perspective of import and export product structure, Shenzhen’s high-tech product exports will increase significantly in 2025, accounting for 46.6% of total exports.
In terms of imports, with the expansion of high-tech industries, the demand for imports of core components, advanced equipment, and key raw materials has increased.
At the same time, driven by the continued recovery of domestic demand, imports of energy, consumer goods, and intermediate goods increased.
It shows that high value-added products have become the core support of Shenzhen’s foreign trade. Exports are shifting from scale priority to quality priority. The import structure is gradually shifting from “consumer goods” to “production materials and technical equipment”. There are also many positive changes such as domestic and foreign demand collaborative drive, accelerated industrial chain upgrades, technological competitive advantages gradually replacing cost advantages, etc., releasing positive signals that the trade pattern is becoming more reasonable.
In 2025, foreign-invested enterprises in Shenzhen will explode with vitality, and their growth rate will hit a new high in recent years.
There were 15,906 newly established foreign direct investment enterprises throughout the year, an increase of 63.3% over the previous year.
The actual amount of foreign direct investment used was 50.484 billion yuan, of which the actual investment amount from ASEAN countries was 4.597 billion yuan, an increase of 55.0%.
This is related to Shenzhen’s overall business environment, marketization, legalization, and internationalization, as well as industrial and policy dividends such as the agglomeration of high-end industrial clusters, the entry into force of RCEP, and the convergence of rules in the Greater Bay Area.
With the “near-shore + friendly shore” reconstruction of the global supply chain, Shenzhen has become the core node of the Asia-Pacific supply chain and one of the important reasons for attracting foreign investment.
In terms of trade methods, the data are also divided.
In 2025, the total amount of goods exported by Shenzhen in the form of general trade will be 1.568929 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.8%. The total amount of goods exported in the form of processing trade and other trade will be 528.648 billion yuan and 641.203 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.3% and 9.2% respectively.
The decline in general trade was mainly affected by the slowdown in international market demand for traditional commodities.
The slight increase in processing trade was due to the upgrading of Shenzhen’s industrial chain, which led to the recovery of precision manufacturing and high-end processing.
The surge in cross-border e-commerce, market procurement, bonded maintenance and other trade reflects the strong explosive power of new foreign trade formats.
The development and evolution of new models such as cross-border e-commerce, market procurement trade and overseas warehouses have significantly reduced trade thresholds and costs, helping companies quickly expand overseas small and medium-sized customer markets.
With the restructuring of the global supply chain, bonded maintenance, R&D import substitution, etc. promote the continuous innovation of trade forms, and various new business forms emerge at an accelerated pace.
At the same time, foreign trade companies are actively adjusting their foreign trade strategies, shifting from reliance on traditional bulk trade to new trade with small batches, multiple batches, and high flexibility. Various factors have jointly promoted other trade forms to become new growth poles.
Experts believe that in the future, Shenzhen’s trade will continue to maintain a diversified development pattern, with general trade still occupying the dominant position, and new business forms of trade becoming the main force in growth, promoting the steady improvement of the overall structural resilience of foreign trade.
