Containers are unloaded at Qingdao Port, east China's Shandong Province, Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Yu Fangping/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- In 2024, China's foreign trade has shown steady progress, with an expanding scale, an optimized structure, diversified international markets, and accelerated release of new growth drivers. These upward and innovative trends reflect China's resilience in navigating challenges.
In the new year, despite facing some uncertainties, positive factors such as rising external demand driven by global economic recovery, domestic trade facilitation, optimization of product structures, expansion of emerging markets, and the thriving development of cross-border e-commerce are expected to support steady growth in both trade volume and quality.
-- New products forging new advantages
On January 3, Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd. announced that in 2025, demand for its fluorine refrigerant products is expected to remain strong, with both domestic and foreign prices continuing their upward trend from late 2024. Similarly, on January 6, RIAMB (Beijing) Technology Development Co., Ltd. shared that its intelligent logistics solutions for chemical fiber production had successfully entered the European market.
These examples of listed companies achieving a strong start in exports highlight the upward momentum of China's exports in 2025.
China's total goods imports and exports maintained steady growth in the first 11 months of 2024, reaching 39.79 trillion yuan and expanding by 4.9 percent year on year, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
Specifically, exports of mechanical and electrical products accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total during the January-November period, with exports of automatic data processing equipment and its parts, integrated circuits, and automobiles increasing by 11.4 percent, 20.3 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.
High-tech products such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaic products, and lithium batteries, collectively known as China's "new three" in foreign trade, are rising stars.
China is accelerating the development of new quality productive forces, with notable trends toward high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing, enhancing the global appeal of "Made in China", said Wang Lingjun, deputy director of GAC.
In the first three quarters of 2024, China's foreign trade with over 160 countries and regions increased, further underscoring the country's expanding international market reach.
-- New tools facilitating trade services
"My team consists mostly of newcomers with no prior experience in foreign trade, but when it comes to leveraging AI technology, I believe we are already quite advanced," said Liu Shiqi, a young foreign trader.
Liu explained that by using an AI business assistant to analyze the preferences of U.S. consumers, his company sold slippers at 50 U.S. dollars per pair, generating approximately 30 million yuan in revenue. During the 2024 Christmas season, thanks to AI-driven product analysis, Liu's store saw daily search volumes increase by over 500 percent.
The wave of AI adoption has swept into foreign trade, with many companies expanding their services through AI technology.
Alibaba.com launched its first end-to-end AI assistant in 2024, which is now used by 60,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. To date, approximately 7 million product listings have been created through the AI assistant on the platform. Optimized product pages have achieved a 52 percent increase in payment conversion rate in overseas markets.
Similarly, listed company Focus Technology has developed AI solutions tailored to foreign trade, focusing on efficiency, capability, and business opportunities to help enterprises uncover more growth potential.
AI technology plays a vital role in helping foreign trade enterprises tackle key challenges by improving supply-demand matching, enhancing efficiency, and enabling businesses to gain deeper insights into industry and market trends, said Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba.com.
With AI technology and short-video platforms, foreign trade businesses are becoming more sensitive to shifting overseas market demands.
Li, a foreign trade entrepreneur, said that the short-video platforms have become essential for product promotion, allowing foreign trade companies to quickly identify new trends and changes in global consumer markets.
-- New policies igniting new momentum
"Thanks to the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA), our clothing exports to Chile have enjoyed zero-tariff treatment, enabling us to quickly expand into the Latin American market," said Xue Qinfen, manager of Seduno Group Co., Ltd., a company specializing in clothing business.
From January to November 2024, Seduno applied for 3,124 certificates of origin under the China-Chile FTA, involving goods worth 160 million yuan, up 36.9 percent and 15.94 percent year on year respectively.
The Ministry of Commerce continues to advance the construction of FTAs. The China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Further Upgrade Protocol came into effect on December 31, 2024, and the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement officially came into effect on January 1, 2025.
China will continue to open its domestic market proactively, foster win-win cooperation among global economies, and drive global openness through its own opening-up efforts, said Li Chao, chief economist at Zheshang Securities.
Beyond policy formulation, international exhibitions are also a major driver of foreign trade development.
In 2024, the number of actual implementation projects, the number of participating enterprises, and the exhibition area approved by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) increased by 29.6 percent, 26.5 percent, and 23 percent year on year respectively, said Wu Shengrong, head of the Exhibition Management Department of the CCPIT.
In 2025, China's international exhibition influence is expected to grow further, playing a more prominent role in the country's high-quality economic development, he noted.
Local governments are also stepping up their efforts. On January 2, Wenzhou municipal government organized thousand enterprises to expand markets and secure orders overseas for 2025. In the first quarter, Wenzhou plans to send over 60 business delegations comprising more than 500 companies to participate in over 40 exhibitions worldwide.
Zhejiang Province aims to organize more than 1,000 delegations and support over 10,000 enterprises to explore international markets, and hold over 100 key provincial-level exhibitions in 2025.
In the face of uncertainties in the global trade environment, China's close trade ties with other countries provide solid support for global development, said Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
He noted that in 2025, China will further stabilize trade volume and optimize trade structures, achieving high-quality foreign trade development.
(Edited by Tian Shenyoujia with Xinhua Silk Road, tianshenyoga0524@163.com)
A single purchase
