The largest foreign trade city in the Midwest changed hands. A year ago, almost no one would believe this statement.
For the whole of 2025, Xi'an's total import and export volume will only be 498.79 billion yuan, which is still far behind Chongqing's 800.68 billion yuan. At that time, Xi'an was only a quiet supporting role in the foreign trade map of the central and western regions. Chongqing has held the top spot in the central and western regions for many years, followed by Chengdu and Zhengzhou as the hegemon in central China.
A year later, the script was rewritten.
In the first three quarters of 2026, Xi'an's total import and export value surged to 764.413 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 115.5%. The national foreign trade ranking jumped from 19th to 12th among cities in the same period last year, ranking first among central and western cities. Chongqing's total foreign trade import and export value during the same period was 749.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.1%.
In terms of growth rate, Chongqing can be said to have worked hard, but it is still slightly inferior to 115.5%.
Xi'an not only surpassed Chongqing, but also surpassed five cities: Qingdao, Chengdu, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, and Hefei, ranking first among sub-provincial cities in terms of growth rate. There is only a gap of less than 240 billion yuan from the full-year trillion threshold.
In the trillion-dollar foreign trade club, there is still no central and western city. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Dongguan, Ningbo, Guangzhou, and Jinhua are eight trillion-dollar foreign trade cities, all located in the eastern region. If Xi'an can catch up with the momentum in the fourth quarter, it will become the first trillion-dollar foreign trade city in the central and western regions.
But what is really worth asking is not "how did Xi'an rush forward", but "what did it rely on to rush forward, and whether the thing it relied on is tenable."
Breaking down the structure, the answer is not complicated.
In the first three quarters, exports of mechanical and electrical products were 566.05 billion yuan, an increase of 160.1%, accounting for 94.8% of the city's total export value. Among them, integrated circuits accounted for 346.68 billion yuan, an increase of 251%, accounting for 58.1% of the city's total export value.
In other words, chips account for the majority of Xi'an's exports.
Behind the chip are two companies. Samsung Semiconductor's Xi'an factory is a very important production base in the field of semiconductor memory chips. Micron also has a large-scale packaging and testing base in Xi'an. For Micron alone, imports and exports in the first half of the year reached 230.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 224.1%.
In 2026, memory chips will enter an upward cycle, with prices and shipments rising simultaneously. Xi'an stands right in the middle of this round of repricing. The outbreak in Xi'an is essentially the result of a chip being repriced in the global pricing system.
The advantages of open channels are also in force. In the first three quarters, there were 4,560 China-Europe freight trains (Xi'an), a year-on-year increase of 2.4%. Dry ports and airports facilitate the transportation of raw materials and finished products, and the customs clearance convenience in the comprehensive bonded zone minimizes time costs.
Inland cities that are not close to the sea or border have used railways and runways to create a foreign trade channel.
It is worth mentioning that Xi'an's rise to the top does not mean Chongqing's regression, nor does it mean a fundamental reversal of the foreign trade pattern in the central and western regions.
The basics of Chongqing’s foreign trade are laptops and automobiles. The overseas penetration rates of Changan and Thalys are rising, and laptop exports are also reaping the overflow dividends from rising storage prices.
Xi'an's transcendence is more of a "point" breakthrough. It relies on the extreme explosive power of a city on a very narrow track, rather than the systematic improvement of the overall competitiveness of foreign trade in the central and western regions. Once the chip shipment cycles of Samsung and Micron fluctuate, Xi'an's foreign trade will fluctuate accordingly.
The two companies put their manufacturing links in Xi'an, leaving technical decisions and brand premiums in their home countries. Their stability depends on the parent company's global calculations.
Xi'an also knows this. Xi'an's "15th Five-Year Plan" outline has proposed that high-potential future industries such as biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communications should be accurately cultivated according to local conditions.
The trillion threshold is just ahead. Crossing over, Xi'an will become the first trillion-dollar foreign trade city in the central and western regions, breaking the long-term monopoly of eastern cities on the trillion-dollar foreign trade club. This label carries weight, and international logistics channels, port functions, and foreign investment confidence will all be raised accordingly.
How to stand still after crossing one trillion is the real question. The answer lies not in the upward segment of the storage cycle, but in whether Xi'an can turn the geographical concentration of manufacturing links into the depth of R&D, supporting and local supply chains.
