Guangdong exceeds 9 trillion yuan mark in foreign trade

South China's Guangdong province, the nation's biggest foreign trader, hit a foreign trade volume of 9.11 trillion yuan ($1.24 trillion) last year, up 9.8 percent year-on-year.

It is the first time Guangdong, the global production base, achieved an import and export volume exceeding the 9 trillion yuan mark, demonstrating its resilience and vitality in foreign trade.

According to a statement released by Guangdong Customs on Wednesday, Guangdong's foreign trade last year accounted for 20.8 percent of the country's total, an increase of 0.9 percentage points.

The province reached an export volume of 5.89 trillion yuan in 2024, up year-on-year 8.4 percent, while its imports grew even faster by 12.5 percent year-on-year to come to 3.22 trillion yuan.

The province's foreign trade made significant progress in emerging markets while maintaining good growth momentum in traditional markets last year, said the statement.

Guangdong achieved positive trade growth with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States and the European Union, showing increases of 8 percent, 7.6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

The province's import and export volume with the 17 countries in the Middle East enjoyed a year-on-year growth of 8.8 percent, while the figures with Latin America and the five Central Asian nations witnessed a year-on-year increase of 16.7 percent and 40.3 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's foreign trade with the nations and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative grew 9.4 percent and accounted for 38 percent of the province's total, said the statement.

Guangdong imported 2.15 trillion yuan worth of mechanical and electrical products last year, a year-on-year increase of 18.4 percent, accounting for 66.8 percent of its total import value, it said.

Among them, imported integrated circuits amounted to 1.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 14.8 percent, while the imports of automatic data processing equipment and its components came to 295.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 127.8 percent. Imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment reached 55.32 billion yuan, an increase of 56.7 percent year-on-year.

In 2024, Guangdong imported 104 million metric tons of energy products, including coal, crude oil and natural gas, a year-on-year increase of 25.2 percent.

The province purchased 13.64 million metric tons of grain last year, a year-on-year increase of 21.9 percent, said the statement.