The latest statistics released by the General Administration of Customs show that in the first five months of 2026, China’s regional foreign trade continued to improve, with artificial intelligence and other products increasing by more than 50% year-on-year.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has achieved a high growth of 18.8%, which is supported by high-end manufacturing and trillion-yuan industrial clusters.
For example, robots that have been “out of the circle” frequently in recent times, data show that for every three industrial collaborative robots called “palletizers” sold globally, one comes from the manufacturing capital of Dongguan, Guangdong.
From breaking the industry’s load limit to winning the global sales crown, Dongguan’s “palletizer” has become the “leader” in industry standards.
The “palletizer” in front of us is simply a tireless “intelligent porter”, breaking the stereotype of traditional industrial robots as “heavy and difficult to operate”.
It can automatically stack goods onto pallets neatly and quickly, and can work side by side with ordinary workers without the need for safety fences.
The company’s self-developed AI operating system, equipped with an advanced graphical programming system, allows complex robotic arms to be “plug and play” and ordinary workers can quickly get started.
Xiao Fageng, the person in charge of the company, said: “This operation interface is as simple and friendly as a tablet. You only need to enter the length and width of the pallet, move forward, and then enter the length, width and height of the box. The entire operation can be completed in 5 minutes.”
In view of the pain point of “large loads and high precision are difficult to be compatible” in the heavy industry, the company broke through the high-voltage drive technology and launched an industrial collaborative palletizing robot with a load of up to 80 kilograms, setting a new industry record.
Compared with traditional industrial robots, the palletizing robot adopts a lightweight design, covers an area of only 2.5 square meters, weighs only 350 kilograms, has a maximum palletizing height of 2.1 meters, and has the high-speed operation capability of operating 12 boxes per minute.
Statistics show that the company will rank first in the global industrial collaborative robot market in terms of shipments with a market share of 33% in 2025.
Teng Lei, deputy director of Dongguan Customs under Huangpu Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, Dongguan City has exported industrial robots worth more than 160 million yuan, and its export destination markets have expanded to more than 60 countries around the world. Exports to emerging markets such as Thailand, Turkey, and Mexico have doubled, and product types include welding robots, handling robots, assembly robots, etc.
Since the beginning of this year, the export of artificial intelligence-related products represented by industrial robots has grown rapidly.
In the first five months, China’s total import and export of artificial intelligence-related products such as electronic components, computer parts, optical fiber cables, etc. was 4.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.4%.
Lu Daliang, Director of the Statistical Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, said: “Since this year, my country’s import and export of artificial intelligence-related products have generally shown a trend of expansion month by month. On the one hand, it meets the needs of intelligent upgrading of domestic industries, on the other hand, it also provides a stable supply for the development of the global artificial intelligence industry, and the “intelligence content” of foreign trade continues to increase.”
High-tech industries empowered the central region to grow by 19.5%.
In the first five months of this year, central China ranked at the forefront of the country’s foreign trade with a high growth rate of 19.5%. The high growth was due to a more optimized export industrial structure, especially high-tech products, which accounted for more than 30% of the total exports, becoming a new driving force for foreign trade growth.
In the first five months, Anhui’s foreign trade achieved excellent results with an increase of 32.9%, and the high-tech industry made outstanding contributions.
In a leading display screen company in Hefei, a fully automated module production line can assemble a screen every 4.5 seconds.
Zhang Wei, the person in charge of the company, said: “This solution can increase the resolution of the display screen by more than 2 times, the brightness by 4 times, and the lifespan by 6 times.”
Relying on technological empowerment, cluster efforts, and continuously improving overseas layout, Hefei’s high-tech product exports have strong momentum and have maintained double-digit growth this year.
Li Fuheng, chief of the First Supervision Section of Luzhou Customs under Hefei Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, Hefei’s exports of high-tech products have grown rapidly. The exports of liquid crystal display panels, high-end vehicle displays, integrated circuits and other products have exceeded 70 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 70%, becoming the backbone of promoting the quality and efficiency of foreign trade.
Leading export growth with high-tech and high-end manufacturing is a prominent feature of China’s foreign trade field.
According to customs statistics, in the first five months of this year, the export of mechanical and electrical products from the central region increased by 23.5%, accounting for 67.6% of the total export value during the same period, of which “three new products” increased by 85.1%, and high-tech products increased by 24.7%.
Lu Daliang, director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, said: “Currently, the global demand for artificial intelligence, green and low-carbon transformation and other industries is strong, driving the growth of trade in related products, and my country’s export momentum continues to develop in a new and optimal way. In the first five months, the export of mechanical and electrical products increased my country’s overall exports by 11.1 percentage points, and the export of green products such as lithium batteries and wind turbines increased by about 40%.”
The import and export scale of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region hit a record high in May.
The latest customs data shows that in the first five months of this year, the foreign trade import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region increased by 14.4%. Especially in the month of May, both imports and exports hit monthly record highs.
According to Beijing Customs statistics, in the first five months, the import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was 2.09 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%, accounting for 10.1% of the country’s total import and export value.
Since the beginning of this year, the import and export value of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has maintained year-on-year growth for five consecutive months.
In May, exports were 135.89 billion yuan, an increase of 11.7%, and imports were 348.46 billion yuan, an increase of 28.1%. Both exports and imports hit monthly record highs.
In the first five months, state-owned enterprises accounted for more than half of the total in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and imports and exports increased by 15.5%; private enterprises increased by 22.9%, leading the country’s overall private enterprises in growth.
In terms of key import and export commodities, mechanical and electrical products exported by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region accounted for 60%, and exports of automobiles and lithium batteries increased by 26.2% and 137.9% respectively.
