The 139th Canton Fair opened in Guangzhou on April 15, with Chongqing motorcycles showing strong momentum in going global. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

Chongqing - Chongqing’s foreign trade has surged 34.3% year-on-year recently, reaching 221.55 billion yuan (about 322.95 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce. The growth rate is 30.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 19.3 points above the national average.

Electronics and automobiles were the primary drivers of the city's export surge, fueled by efforts to optimize supply chain operations. The city has been guiding companies to use Chongqing as a hub for integrated cross-border manufacturing, which has boosted shipments of laptop components.

Chongqing is helping firms such as SK Hynix upgrade their product mix and secure new orders. In the first quarter, electronics exports rose 36.8%, with laptops up 13.6% and integrated circuits soaring 170.1%.

On the auto front, Chongqing stepped up support for major players, including Changan, Seres, and Great Wall, to expand in key overseas markets. The Lianglu Guoyuan Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone deepened its strategic partnership with Changan to build an integrated supply chain base for auto parts. 

Meanwhile, the Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone, both of which also function as railway ports, provided one‑stop services for Seres, Geely, and others, covering bonded warehousing, customs clearance, international freight forwarding, and supply chain finance. Vehicle exports jumped 70.5% in the quarter.

Chongqing's growing engagement with emerging markets underscored its push to diversify trade partners and strengthen its international presence. The city upgraded its international market expansion initiative and released a list of 100 key overseas exhibitions for 2026 across its core industries. Its overseas trade fair agenda was expanded to seven events this year. 

As a result, trade with emerging markets grew rapidly: imports and exports with ASEAN rose 30.2%, with Latin America 37.4%, and with Africa 40.2%. The city also secured more than 70 booths at the 139th Canton Fair in high-demand sectors, including motorcycles and power equipment.

The city continued to connect cross‑border e‑commerce with local industrial clusters and overseas warehouses. It also hosted a national youth entrepreneurship competition focused on cross-border e-commerce and guided platforms, including Alibaba International, Amazon, and the local cross‑border e‑commerce association, to organize more than 20 events, such as district‑level summits and seller development conferences.

On the services front, Chongqing's comprehensive foreign trade service platform has attracted more than 2,000 enterprises, offering end‑to‑end support, including order matching and financial services. The platform also officially launched onsite service stations in Peru and Australia. In the first quarter, the number of enterprises in Chongqing with actual import and export performance reached 4,357, up 23.1% from a year earlier and a record high for the period.

The city also worked with various parties to respond to shifting international conditions, helping companies such as Changan mitigate transit cargo risks on Middle East routes. In coordination with customs and port logistics authorities, it continued to optimize cross-border logistics, securing sufficient capacity on the China-Laos-Thailand and China-Europe rail routes to ensure the smooth and efficient flow of goods.

(Wanqing Lu, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)