In the first five months of 2026, Chongqing’s foreign trade import and export has delivered a report card that far exceeds the national average.
The total import and export value reached 387.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of 32.5%, which was 17.2 percentage points higher than the overall national level.
Behind this set of dazzling figures, a growth curve driven by both “Chinese enterprises going overseas” and “foreign investment increasing” has clearly emerged.
Dissecting the export data of 273.69 billion yuan in the first five months, we can see that the industrial upgrading of Chongqing’s manufacturing industry is concentrated in several key categories.
The fastest growing category was automobile (including new energy) exports, which amounted to 23.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 66.4%, leading the way among the four main categories.
At the same time, laptop computers, as the “ballast stone” of Chongqing’s exports, reached 71.68 billion yuan, an increase of 21.9%, and still accounted for the largest export share.
Mobile phones (23.16 billion yuan, +11.4%) and motorcycles (12.21 billion yuan, +9.8%) constitute the stable third and fourth tiers.
This structure of “explosion of automobiles and robustness of laptops” means that Chongqing manufacturing is switching from a single-core drive of electronic information to a dual-core drive of electronic information and intelligent networked new energy vehicles.
The 32.5% growth rate is not evenly distributed in all directions, and the incremental contributions of different markets and different entities vary significantly.
From a market perspective, traditional trading partners maintained double-digit growth, with ASEAN (64.56 billion yuan, +25.9%) and the EU (46.29 billion yuan, +19.7%) still the basic market.
But the real growth engine comes from emerging markets: imports and exports to countries co-building the “Belt and Road” totaled 177.23 billion yuan, an increase of 34.8%, contributing 48.1% of the city’s foreign trade growth.
The growth rates of Latin America (+35.5%), Africa (+44.5%), Central Asia (+62.7%) and other regions reveal the transformation of Chongqing’s foreign trade circle of friends from “point-like distribution” to “multi-polar support”.
In terms of entities, in the first five months, Chongqing had 5,321 import and export companies with actual performance, a year-on-year increase of 30.3%.
Among them, the import and export of state-owned enterprises was 45.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51%, the most eye-catching growth rate; foreign-invested enterprises (+31.6%) and private enterprises (+29.7%) also maintained rapid growth.
In terms of platform dimension, the city’s seven comprehensive bonded zones have a total import and export of 261.76 billion yuan, an increase of 43.6%. The growth rate is significantly higher than the city’s average, becoming a stabilizer and accelerator of foreign trade growth.
Behind the foreign trade data is the two-way flow of capital.
Local companies are accelerating their “going global” strategy to expand into the global market.
Taking the industrial ecology of Tongliang District as an example, Haichen Energy Storage relies on the world’s first energy storage battery “lighthouse factory” and its products are radiated to more than 20 countries and regions; the annual output of Emma electric vehicles has exceeded 1.5 million units, and it is promoting the direct export of local manufacturing, focusing on expanding the European and African markets; UFJ Technology in Bishan District is building an overseas production base in Malaysia. Its independently developed X-ray source has broken the overseas monopoly, and its products have been exported to more than 70 countries around the world.
At the same time, external capital is also increasing its investment in Chongqing.
In mid-June, the American company Brazer signed a 1.05 billion yuan edge artificial intelligence computing project in Jiulongpo District, focusing on smart manufacturing and smart cities.
The practice in Tongliang District provides a microscopic sample to observe how “two-way force” is implemented.
On June 18, the 2026 Copper Merchants Conference was held locally, with 68 projects signed on site, covering new energy storage, intelligent connected new energy vehicle supporting equipment, advanced materials and other fields.
At the conference, Tongliang District released a district-level “development opportunity list” with a total investment of 119.3 billion yuan, while the Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission released a state-owned enterprise cooperation list with a total investment of 38.4 billion yuan.
The conference also announced the establishment of the “Overseas Chinese Assistance Copper Enterprises Going Overseas Collaboration Alliance”, which was released simultaneously with the “Tongliang District Advantageous Industries Going Overseas Action Plan”, which includes specific special policies such as overseas exhibition subsidies and international certification support.
In addition, Chongqing has also introduced policies such as a 1.5% discount on loan interest for the construction of a thousand-ton smart fleet and a 40% premium subsidy for credit insurance for foreign trade companies. Tongliang District has implemented a service package aimed at reducing corporate transaction costs such as “start construction upon acquiring land”.
The other side of the coin is financial support.
China Merchants Bank Chongqing Branch’s newly launched “one-order” digital bill of lading export TT bill advance business provides a new financing channel for small and medium-sized foreign trade companies and supports motorcycle companies and other “capital going global”.
The 158 key projects included in the Tongliang district-level “Development Opportunities List” have a total investment of 119.3 billion yuan. If calculated based on a five-year average construction cycle, Tongliang District alone needs to digest an investment of approximately 24 billion yuan each year.
This tests not only the commercial sustainability of the project itself, but also the coordination ability of the local finance and financial system.
