In 2026, Suzhou’s foreign trade will achieve remarkable results.
Data released by Suzhou Customs shows that the monthly import and export volume in May 2026 reached 357.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.4%. This growth rate set a new monthly record since February 2010.
In the first five months of this year, Suzhou’s total foreign trade import and export value reached 1.48 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.5%, accounting for 7.2% and 52.2% of the country’s and the province’s foreign trade respectively.
Against the background of the national average import and export growth rate of 15.3% during the same period, Suzhou led the way with a rate 22.2 percentage points higher, firmly ranking in the first echelon among major foreign trade cities that have published data.
Compared with cities such as Wuxi, Shanghai, and Dongguan, Suzhou’s growth curve is particularly steep. For example, Wuxi’s import and export growth rate in the first five months was 27.9%, Shanghai’s growth rate in the first quarter was 16.3%, and Dongguan’s growth rate from January to April was 5.4%.
The source of power for Suzhou’s foreign trade growth is undergoing profound spatial displacement.
In the first five months of this year, Suzhou’s import and export volume to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 778.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.4%, accounting for more than 50% of the city’s foreign trade to 52.6%, an increase of 8.6 percentage points from the same period last year.
In May alone, Suzhou’s imports and exports to “Belt and Road” countries increased by as high as 90.9%, contributing to more than 70% of the city’s increase that month.
This shows that the main driving force of Suzhou’s foreign trade has shifted from traditional European and American markets to the explosion of demand in emerging markets.
During the same period, Suzhou’s imports and exports to ASEAN and the EU increased by 51% and 21.4% respectively, but the volume share has dropped to 21.1% and 11.5%.
From a product perspective, the overseas structure of “Made in Suzhou” is accelerating and optimized.
In the first five months, the city’s lithium battery exports were 12.77 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 87.5%; photovoltaic product exports were 4.24 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 109.6%, both of which maintained double or nearly doubled growth rates.
During the same period, exports of electrical equipment, household appliances, and printed circuits also increased by 26%, 14.7%, and 33.7% respectively.
In addition to the export side, the data on the import side is also critical.
In the first five months, Suzhou imported 481.48 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, a year-on-year increase of 65.9%, of which the import growth rate of electronic components was as high as 107.9%.
This simultaneous increase in “exporting high-end manufacturing + importing high-end equipment” confirms the substantial progress of Suzhou’s manufacturing industry from traditional assembly to technology-intensive links.
Lu Zhe, chief economist of Soochow Securities, analyzed that the domestic economic growth momentum has gradually shifted to the support of new productivity, advanced manufacturing, export structure upgrades and service consumption restoration, and the growth model has become more diversified and sustainable; Suzhou has also formed a sustainable growth model through the cultivation of new productivity, foreign trade structure upgrades and market diversification.
From the perspective of trade methods and main structure, growth is not driven by a single engine.
In the first five months, Suzhou’s processing trade import and export volume was 706.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 57.4%, becoming the main driving force for growth.
Among them, Suzhou Industrial Park performed outstandingly. The total import and export value of goods trade in the first five months was 659.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 110.1%. In May, the single-month import and export value was 179.5 billion yuan, an increase of 170.7%, setting a new monthly scale record for the tenth consecutive month.
The park’s processing trade import and export reached 426.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 138.3%, accounting for 60.4% of the city’s total processing trade value.
In terms of entities, the import and export of Suzhou’s foreign-invested enterprises in the first five months was 877.75 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.3%, still accounting for 59.3%; the growth rate of state-owned enterprises was as high as 109.6%, becoming the fastest growing entity.
It can be seen from the comparison of data from major foreign trade cities across the country that Suzhou’s 37.5% growth rate is not only a numerical leader, but also reflects the switching logic of manufacturing competition.
When the national average growth rate of processing trade in the first five months was 22.9%, Suzhou’s 57.4% was nearly 2.5 times that; when the national import of mechanical and electrical products increased by 25.3%, Suzhou’s 65.9% far exceeded the national average.
This set of comparisons reveals the core of the Suzhou model: it is no longer just a foreign trade corridor for “production to order”, but has occupied a key node in the global supply chain that is difficult to replace with its “deeply embedded” layout in fields such as new energy, integrated circuits, and intelligent driving.
The person in charge of the Suzhou Customs Comprehensive Business Office said that since this year, Suzhou’s monthly import and export values have hit new highs. The next step will be to continue to optimize the port business environment, promote the expansion of the comprehensive bonded area and improve quality, and accurately support enterprises to enjoy policy dividends.
The achievement of 1.48 trillion yuan is a yardstick, which measures the distance from scale expansion to quality leap of a famous manufacturing city.
