Shanghai achieved 3.94 trillion yuan in imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year, up 17.9% year on year, according to the latest data from Shanghai Customs.
Of that total, imports reached 2.13 trillion yuan, up 14.4%, while exports totaled 1.81 trillion yuan, up 22.3%.
In the first nine months, Shanghai ranked fourth among all provincial-level regions in foreign trade scale, accounting for 9.9% of the national total. The city's foreign trade has shown strong performance in both imports and exports, further consolidating its role as a stabilizing pillar.
Shanghai's quarterly import and export scale maintained double-digit growth throughout the year, demonstrating remarkable resilience. The fundamental reason lies in the confidence brought by more robust development momentum and the composure enabled by smoother logistics channels.
Development momentum is first reflected in the leap in product value. According to Shanghai Customs data, in the first three quarters, Shanghai exported 415.28 billion yuan worth of seven categories of AI-related products — industrial transformers, energy storage batteries, servers, integrated circuits, storage components, communication equipment and optical transceiver modules — up 70.3% and accounting for 23% of the city's total exports. Exports of high-end robots such as intelligent bionic and medical surgical robots also ranked among the top nationwide, with Shanghai's share of national exports in these two categories reaching 21.8% and 64.7% respectively.
Development momentum is also embedded in the enormous potential of emerging markets. Since May this year, ASEAN has surpassed Europe and the United States to become Shanghai's largest trading partner for five consecutive months. In the first three quarters, Shanghai's import and export growth rates with ASEAN both exceeded 34%. Shanghai's competitive goods such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic products and lithium batteries saw exports to ASEAN grow by 67.5%, 3.4 times and 2.1 times respectively in the first three quarters. During the same period, Shanghai's imports from ASEAN of suitcases and bags, clothing, and dried and fresh fruits grew by 30.8%, 6.3% and 9.2% respectively. Mutual benefit has become a defining feature of Shanghai's foreign trade with ASEAN.
Import and export logistics channels have focused on smoothness, steadily supporting Shanghai's high-quality trade growth. In maritime shipping, leveraging the Yangshan Deep-Water Port's connection with the Yangtze River golden waterway, maritime imports and exports reached 1.98 trillion yuan, up 8.9%. Among these, the Shanghai–Chancay route launched in November 2024 handled 4.9 billion yuan in imports and exports in the first three quarters, up 23%, carrying new growth in Shanghai's trade with Latin America. In air transport, leveraging the cargo hub advantages of Pudong International Airport, throughput of high-value-added electronic products and cross-border e-commerce expanded significantly, with cumulative imports and exports reaching 1.7 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, up 28.7%. In land transport, Shanghai operated 76 China-Europe freight trains in the first three quarters, with a cargo value of 2 billion yuan, up 1.5 times and 1.1 times respectively, further densifying the trade network connecting Asia and Europe.
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