Guangdong's foreign trade reached 7.54 trillion yuan in the first eight months of 2026, up 21.7 percent year on year, accounting for 21.7 percent of China's total foreign trade. Its share increased by 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier, with the province maintaining its position as China's largest provincial-level trading region.
Exports climbed 11.6 percent to 4.42 trillion yuan, while imports surged 39.5 percent to 3.12 trillion yuan. The trade surplus narrowed 24.6 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan.
In August alone, Guangdong's imports and exports reached 1.05 trillion yuan, up 29.7 percent year on year. Monthly import-and-export volume has remained above the 1 trillion yuan mark for three consecutive months, while growth accelerated by 10.7 percentage points from July.
ASEAN, Hong Kong, the EU, the US and Taiwan, China were Guangdong's five largest trading partners in the first eight months. Trade with them reached 1.18 trillion yuan, 1.15 trillion yuan, 781.67 billion yuan, 685.27 billion yuan and 623.14 billion yuan, respectively. Among the five, trade with Hong Kong posted the strongest growth at 47.4 percent, while trade with ASEAN, the EU, the US and Taiwan, China grew 16.2 percent, 4.5 percent, 6.9 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively. Trade with South Korea, Africa, India and Australia also grew rapidly, rising 48.2 percent, 19.6 percent, 15.6 percent and 30.9 percent, respectively.
Private companies contributed 5.1 trillion yuan, or 67.7 percent of Guangdong's total foreign trade, up 28.6 percent year on year. Their share went up 3.7 percentage points from a year earlier. Foreign-invested companies recorded 2.21 trillion yuan in imports and exports, up 13.6 percent, marking their 19th consecutive month of positive growth and accounting for 29.3 percent of the total.
Exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 3.11 trillion yuan, up 15.7 percent, accounting for 70.5 percent of total exports, an increase of 2.5 percentage points. Integrated circuit exports surged 57.1 percent to 370.49 billion yuan, while exports of electrical equipment and computers and their components rose 24.7 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively.
Exports of emerging products also grew strongly. Exports of lithium-ion batteries rose 38.7 percent to 126.06 billion yuan, electric-vehicle exports increased 24.5 percent to 35.79 billion yuan, 3D-printer exports jumped more than 120 percent to 11.49 billion yuan, and digital-camera exports gained 58.7 percent to 9.73 billion yuan.
Guangdong's imports grew 54.5 percent in August alone. Amid the AI boom, the province's imports of integrated circuits hit 1.25 trillion yuan in the first eight months, up 51.6 percent and accounting for 39.9 percent of total imports. Imports of computers and their components surged 95.1 percent to 467.74 billion yuan. Imports of copper products, key materials for computing infrastructure, rose 33.2 percent to 45.16 billion yuan.
Reporter | Dai Bosi
Photo | Guangdong Sub-Administration of GACC
