Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters Zhan Yijia and Ding Le
In southern Guangdong, autumn is getting stronger, but it can't hide the rush of economic and trade heat.
During the 140th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), an eye-catching report card was released - in the first three quarters of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade import and export reached 8.72 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.5%. It has been running at a high level of over one trillion yuan for 4 consecutive months and has maintained year-on-year growth for 13 consecutive quarters, accounting for more than 20% of the country's total foreign trade.
As my country's largest foreign trade province, Guangdong's foreign trade continues to hit record highs despite the complex external environment. What important signals does it release?
Create incremental growth in expanding markets
The Canton Fair exhibition hall is crowded with people and business opportunities are surging. Buyers lined up in long lines in front of exoskeleton robots, coffee latte art robots and other products; many customers rushed to experience the infinity heated swimming pool of a company in Huizhou.
Outside the Canton Fair exhibition hall, Baiyun Leather City opened the International Fashion Purchasing Festival, and Guangzhou Meibo City simultaneously held the International Wig Fair and the Beauty Foreign Trade Exhibition, building a new business ecosystem of "exhibition drainage, market landing, and long-term cooperation".
This is an intuitive reflection of Guangdong’s openness and vitality. Only when the door opens wider and the market reaches all directions can we create more value and open up more space.
Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of Guangdong’s foreign trade import and export has accelerated quarter by quarter, and has exceeded one trillion yuan every month for 4 consecutive months. The first and second quarters grew by 19.3% and 22% respectively, and the third quarter grew by 31.3%. The scale exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time in a single quarter, setting a record high.
The increase largely comes from the "market diversification" strategy that Guangdong Foreign Trade has adhered to for many years. By continuing to expand economic and trade exchanges with global trading partners, Guangdong achieved growth in imports and exports to more than 160 countries and regions in the first three quarters. Among them, imports and exports to countries co-building the "Belt and Road" were 3.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.2%, accounting for 36.7% of the total foreign trade value; imports and exports to other APEC economies were 5.74 trillion yuan, an increase of 26.4%; imports and exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN, Africa, Latin America, and traditional markets such as the European Union, South Korea, and the United States all achieved growth.
Many Guangdong foreign trade companies have been in a hurry to "find markets" abroad. Zhujiang Beer has opened up markets in Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Malaysia, and is promoting cooperation in the BC system of large-scale supermarket chains in Thailand; Guangzhou Agricultural Development went to Vietnam and Thailand to inspect 7 suppliers to carry out fresh durian source procurement cooperation; Wong Lo Kat launched the WALOVI Singapore international headquarters; Guangdong Intercity Railway Operation Co., Ltd. won the bid for the Malaysia East Coast Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Project, realizing the "going out" of China's rail transit operation and maintenance service brand.
"The company's main business is massage bathtubs, and it sells about 10,000 units a year, but it still needs to continue to develop new markets. Often, after the last business trip, I just grab my suitcase and start the next business trip." Mai Jiajia, assistant to the general manager of Guangzhou Jianzhijie Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd., has a full schedule. He has been traveling to Australia, Singapore and Europe since August. After attending the Canton Fair in October, he will travel to Germany, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and other places.
In the first phase of the 140th Canton Fair, the cumulative intended transaction volume of the Guangzhou trading group was US$1.37 billion, with America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania being the top five regions in terms of cumulative intended transaction volume. The relevant person in charge of the Guangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau said that the simultaneous development of traditional markets and emerging markets reflects the effectiveness of Guangzhou enterprises in diversifying their global market presence, especially the deep cultivation of emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America, which is being translated into real order increases.
Adding happiness in the process of excellent entry and excellent exit
In the golden autumn of southern Guangdong, workshops, ports, and docks are busy. Sweeping robots are rolling off the production line, LED screens are being packaged, cross-border parcels are cleared, and fresh fruits are on the market... The dual roles of China's "super sellers" and "super buyers" are clearly felt on the front lines of Guangdong's foreign trade.
In the first three quarters of this year, Guangdong exported 5.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.2%; its imports were 3.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 42.5%. The growth rate of imports is 28.3 percentage points faster than that of exports. Excellent imports and excellent exports are being translated into orders for producers and well-being for consumers.
Guangzhou Shiyuan Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.'s booth at the Canton Fair features not only "main overseas products" such as MAXHUB video smart conference tablets and educational interactive smart large screens, but also new embodied smart products such as smart flexible robotic arms, industrial quadruped robots, and commercial cleaning robots. Xiao Hang, president of CVTE's overseas business group, said that in the first half of 2026, the company's overseas revenue was 3.47 billion yuan, accounting for 24.12%. Overseas private brands have become a high-value growth engine for the company's high-quality development.
Behind the boom in exports of high-tech products is the continuous improvement and improvement of Guangdong’s foreign trade momentum. In the first three quarters, Guangdong's high-tech product exports reached 1.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 33%. Among them, the export of high-end special equipment, integrated circuits, lithium batteries, and electric vehicles all achieved significant growth.
A large number of cost-effective "Guangzhou goods" have benefited more and more consumers. On the production line of Guangzhou Longzhijie Medical Technology Co., Ltd., divergent shock wave therapy devices and upper and lower limb active and passive rehabilitation training devices are being produced and are ready to enter more than 30 countries. "The containers contain decent items for the elderly to take a bath and walk by themselves," said Liu Heping, deputy director of Long Zhijie's foreign trade.
What is even more noteworthy is that Guangdong’s imports of goods have maintained a double-digit growth rate this year. In the first three quarters, the import of production factors such as integrated circuits, computer parts, iron ore, and copper ore accelerated the expansion, and the import of daily necessities such as cosmetics and edible oil also increased.
"Double Eleven" is approaching. In the cross-border e-commerce import supervision warehouse at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, five parcel sorting lines have been activated, and global goodies such as beauty products, maternal and infant products, and health care products have been cleared through customs in sequence. The person in charge of Guangzhou COSCO Shipping Air Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. said that the company started global procurement of goods in advance, and the number of imported cross-border e-commerce express shipments every day increased nearly twice compared with usual times.
High-quality products from around the world are also rushing to launch "fresh" products. At the end of October, a batch of Thai fresh coconuts docked at Nansha Port with the "Wan Hai 277" cargo ship. After inspection and customs clearance, the fresh fruits were quickly transferred to Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market. In the first nine months of this year, Nansha Customs supervised more than 320,000 tons of imported fruits, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%.
Huang Bin, deputy director of Guangzhou Customs, said that from "Cantonese goods" going overseas to global good goods entering Guangzhou, there are structural changes in the data and people's livelihood at the port. A more balanced and higher-quality foreign trade opens up new space for enterprises and adds new benefits to consumers.
Mutual benefit and win-win results in two-way empowerment
At present, all links in the international production and supply chain are nested and closely connected with each other. Countless Guangdong enterprises and foreign trade partners work together sincerely to learn from each other's strengths and strive to achieve a higher level and more sustainable win-win situation.
At the 140th Canton Fair, GAC Group unveiled 6 models and 5 technological products, focusing on its four major systematic overseas achievements of "technology, products, ecology and culture". At present, GAC has built a number of overseas factories in Thailand, Malaysia, Nigeria and other places, and has deployed solar energy storage and energy replenishment networks in many countries.
According to Wei Haigang, general manager of GAC International, localization is not just a matter of building a factory and building a car, but also the ecological co-construction of the entire value chain of "manufacturing + energy + talent". "We will use domestic mature intelligent manufacturing experience and integrated solutions of 'optical storage, charging and swapping' to deeply empower emerging markets, promote the transformation of the local automobile industry to new energy, and achieve long-term development from 'product export' to 'win-win industry'."
Ou Shaobin, deputy director of the Trade, Investment Promotion and Development Research Department of the Guangdong Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that ASEAN's rapidly rising demand for alternative energy and the continuously expanding green infrastructure market have provided a broad market for Guangdong's new energy to go overseas. The two sides have different resource endowments and different development stages, which have formed a good complementary pattern of "Guangdong manufacturing + ASEAN resources" and "Guangdong technology + ASEAN market".
At the same time, more and more overseas companies are relying on the products, technologies and funds of Guangdong partners to accelerate industrial upgrading and become bigger and stronger.
Indonesian Changyou Group has seized business opportunities since it first visited the Canton Fair more than 30 years ago. Now it purchases more than 3,000 containers and more than 200,000 kinds of commodities from China every month, more than half of which come from Guangdong. In recent years, Changyou Group has not only purchased goods, but also purchased services at the Canton Fair. They take a fancy to China's increasingly powerful design and planning power, and cooperate with Chinese companies such as Guangzhou Qingchu Group Co., Ltd. to help Changyou do value-added services such as brand planning and upgrade, product and packaging design.
Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co., Ltd., which has ranked first in sales among global desktop 3D printing equipment for three consecutive years, has accelerated its move from "trade overseas" to "ecological globalization". "Not only has it built a local supply chain network at home and abroad, but it has also created the world's largest model community of 50 million people." Li Qiang, head of Latin American channels at Tuozhu, said, "We hope to lower the threshold for using personal smart manufacturing equipment so that everyone can realize the production of creative ideas more conveniently. This is also the unique value that China's smart manufacturing contributes to a better life around the world."
In September this year, Guangdong's foreign trade imports and exports in a single month were 1.18 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.7%. Not only did it set a new monthly high, it also set the largest single-month increase in the past five years. At the end of September, a trade climate survey conducted by the customs on thousands of key foreign trade enterprises in Guangdong Province showed that the proportion of enterprises that were optimistic about the export and import situation in the next 2-3 months increased by 4.9 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points respectively from the previous month.
Bi Kexin, deputy director of the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade import and export scale has been stable, with excellent structure, high quality, and good development momentum. As the "Canton Fair+" effect continues to be released and the dividends of the APEC meeting continue to emerge, Guangdong's foreign trade is expected to maintain a positive momentum.
