Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Recently, a visit to the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone revealed a scene of bustling activity. At the entrance, trucks with license plates from various provinces moved in and out in an orderly fashion. In the storage areas, goods from domestic and international sources were stacked high like small piers. Inside the processing workshops, machinery hummed steadily as production lines operated reliably. In newly expanded factory buildings, new equipment was being installed on production lines for fresh projects.
"This is a land brimming with promise!" said Du Dafeng, Vice President of Hangzhou Shiyan Group Co., Ltd. and head of Lanzhou Shiyan Technology Co., Ltd., standing by his office window. "We plan to establish a new AI-empowered e-commerce industry here, focused on the future and targeting Central Asia and ASEAN markets, to help Gansu's distinctive industries set sail for global markets."
Behind this busy scene and corporate confidence lies a series of encouraging data. In the first two months of this year, the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone achieved import and export trade valued at 1.749 billion yuan, with growth doubling year-on-year. In 2025, it recorded import and export trade of 7.459 billion yuan, a surge of 137.8% compared to the previous year. Over 120 new enterprises settled in the zone in 2025, with more than 70 engaging in actual trade activities. Among them, 35 were newly registered cross-border e-commerce companies, including 17 brought from Hangzhou by Hangzhou Shiyan Group Co., Ltd. alone.
What has the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone, now a hub of converging enterprises, industrial clusters, and doubled foreign trade, done correctly?
A production workshop of an enterprise within the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone.
**Linking Domestic and International Markets to Activate Business Formats**
The flaxseed crude oil production line of Gansu Western Grain Source International Trading Co., Ltd. is operating at full capacity. "The flaxseed we process is imported from Kazakhstan," explained Ma Quancai, the company's head. "We process 500 tons of raw materials daily, producing over 180 tons of oil." When asked about sales channels, Ma Quancai noted that several leading grain and oil companies are based right in Lanzhou New Area, creating a closed loop from import and processing to sales.
Stable production and reliable sales are largely thanks to the bonded zone's open policies, Ma Quancai added. Under the bonded system, companies in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone can import flaxseed for storage and processing within the zone while deferring import tariff payments. Tariffs are paid only when the processed crude oil clears customs. "This enhances our company's capital flexibility," Ma Quancai illustrated. "For a shipment of flaxseed worth over 5 million yuan, tariffs of approximately 900,000 yuan would be due immediately upon entry if not in the bonded zone, pushing total costs above 6 million yuan. Here, payment can be deferred, allowing us to complete orders with just over 5 million yuan."
In recent years, Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone Development and Construction Co., Ltd. (the zone's operating company) has leveraged advantages such as its location, policies, and stable return freight trains for Central Asian grains and oils to deepen its presence in Central Asian markets. It collaborates with domestic industries, jointly introducing oil processing enterprises like Western Grain Source, Huiying Oils, and Fangxingda. This enables the bonded storage and processing conversion of raw materials like flaxseed and barley within the zone.
Particularly in 2025, the company established a Central Asian office in Almaty responsible for purchasing grains and oils, helping the bonded zone accelerate the formation of a synergistic development system where "commerce drives logistics, logistics drives industry, and industry, in turn, supports logistics." This marked a crucial leap from "transporting raw materials" to "clustering industries."
By the end of March this year, the bonded zone had cumulatively imported 34,000 tons of flaxseed, an increase of 183% compared to the same period last year, demonstrating accelerated results from integrated internal and external linkages and synergistic upstream and downstream development.
As the grain and oil business expanded, the company identified a new opportunity. The Central Asian office could procure not only grains and oils but also non-ferrous metal products from Central Asia and Russia. Could the successful model of international-domestic linkage in grain and oil trade be replicated in the mineral products sector?
The company's decision-makers first thought of Baiyin Group, a long-term partner of its parent company, Gansu International Logistics Group. After negotiations, a mineral product supply agreement was successfully reached to import Russian zinc concentrate into the bonded zone for distribution to Baiyin City.
Following the landing of this first non-ferrous metals transaction, the Central Asian office engaged with Kazakhstan Copper Company and markets around Lanzhou New Area, successfully securing supply service agreements for electrolytic copper worth over 200 million yuan with Lanzhou Zichen Copper and Hailiang.
Responding to the growth of new business and the urgent need of local new energy companies to mitigate raw material price fluctuations, the company promptly established a non-ferrous metals distribution center. This successfully created a new supply chain pathway: "overseas direct procurement – bonded distribution – precise delivery."
Positive developments followed one after another. Late last year, as imports of grains, oils, and mineral products increased, Kazakh partners urgently needed modern loading equipment for their logistics bases. The company procured a batch of domestic loading equipment and sent it to the partners via bonded leasing, marking Gansu's first bonded leasing transaction. This further enriched the supply of cross-border machinery and equipment, aiding industrial cooperation between the province and Central Asian countries.
To fully utilize the location, policy, and logistics advantages of the bonded zone's non-ferrous and precious metals import-export distribution center, Baiyin Group relocated export business for 20,000 kilograms of silver and gold to the zone at the end of last year. Since 2025, the bonded zone has handled nearly 37,000 tons of non-ferrous and precious metals imports and exports, with trade value exceeding 3.8 billion yuan.
The linkage from grains and oils to mineral products has not only diversified the business formats within the bonded zone but also deepened its integration and synergistic development with the advantageous industries of Lanzhou New Area and the wider province. The capacity, quality, and level of this open platform have reached a new stage.
Suoying Technology Group establishes presence in Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone.
**Leveraging Advantages to Strengthen Industries**
The transition from trade to industrial clustering, and further to deep integration into the province's industrial upgrading, benefits from the bonded zone's effective use of its policy and functional advantages. It attracts and supports clusters of processing and manufacturing enterprises along with their upstream and downstream partners for interconnected development.
This is evident from two enterprises that settled in 2025.
First, consider Suoying Technology Group. Headquartered in Beijing, Suoying is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the R&D, production, and application of road anti-icing materials, as well as traffic and municipal engineering facility management. It is the only company globally with full industrial chain technology for producing anti-icing series products. Its innovative materials, mixed into asphalt, can prevent road surfaces from freezing in winter and cracking in summer.
In November 2025, to expand into Central Asian and ASEAN markets, Suoying Technology Group held talks with Gansu International Logistics Group. Initially, the discussion focused on cooperating for international transportation of its products. Learning of the company's vision, the bonded zone company immediately extended an olive branch—suggesting they set up production lines within the bonded zone to benefit from policy incentives and locational advantages, with future potential for jointly exploring international markets.
"The tax rebate policies alone in the bonded zone caught our immediate attention," said Wan Kun, plant manager of Gansu Suoying Materials Technology Co., Ltd. "If production were outside the zone, tax rebates are processed only after goods leave the country and exit procedures are completed at the port. But by setting up a factory here and exporting after processing, goods are deemed exported even before leaving the country, enjoying 'inside the territory but outside the customs' treatment, allowing for early rebate processing. This alleviates our financial pressure."
Coupled with the proximity to Gansu's large market, favourable factory rental terms offered by the bonded zone company, and promised assistance with financing, cooperation was reached within a month. Production line construction began in December 2025, and by the end of March this year, equipment installation was underway. Trial production is expected by the end of April, with full operation by the end of May. Once operational, 600,000 tons of the group's total 700,000-ton capacity will be located in Gansu.
Next, consider Hangzhou Shiyan Group Co., Ltd. During a 2025 investment promotion event organized by the bonded zone's administrative committee, the zone company connected with the well-known e-commerce platform service provider Hangzhou Shiyan Group. Upon learning about the zone's initiatives, such as creating the "Bonded Preferred" live-streaming brand, operating the Digital Silk Road International Trade Innovation Zone, and having two customs-approved cross-border e-commerce supervision centers, Hangzhou Shiyan quickly decided to invest. It successfully obtained authorization from Alibaba's AliExpress and facilitated the cluster-style settlement of 17 e-commerce companies.
"The advantages here highly align with our development strategy," said Du Dafeng. The company is deploying a new AI-empowered cross-border e-commerce model. With the AI wave, future online shopping might not even require manual input; simply telling an AI assistant on a phone what is needed could generate multiple shopping options integrating product, price, and delivery distance. The aim is to cultivate talent proficient in AI-driven new e-commerce and incubate new e-commerce ventures. Lanzhou New Area offers not just locational advantages, an e-commerce ecosystem, and bonded zone policies, but also a vocational education park, providing talent support for the new e-commerce sector.
This is just one step. Du Dafeng stated the ultimate goal is to create new digital trade channels to empower Gansu's product exports and industrial upgrading. On November 10 last year, the Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park within the bonded zone was inaugurated, achieving 130 million yuan in trade volume within its first month.
The arrival of new technology, new materials, and new e-commerce enterprises has significantly strengthened the bonded zone's industrial capacity, development momentum, future potential, and regional influence.
Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone Central Asian Commodity Display Center.
**Innovative Management to Optimize Services**
Planting the parasol tree attracts the phoenix. After the phoenix alights, creating a first-class business environment becomes essential. This is a crucial support for making industries larger, stronger, and more sustainable.
In 2025, the bonded zone company promoted the establishment of a "Government-Customs-Enterprise" coordination mechanism. It formed a regular communication mechanism with the bonded zone administrative committee and Jincheng Customs (subordinate to Lanzhou Customs). The three parties hold regular coordination meetings for operational support, using a "Committee + Company" model to pool resources. Prominent operational issues are listed and resolved systematically, ensuring thorough problem-solving and effective implementation.
Opening a dedicated channel for non-bonded goods is one example. Previously, when cross-border e-commerce companies in the zone needed to display products offline outside the zone, the process was inconvenient as the goods were not exports. Under the coordination mechanism, Jincheng Customs identified bottlenecks in the non-bonded goods clearance process and opened a dedicated gate for such goods.
Accelerating the zone's smart upgrade is another example. As business formats increased, some oversized vehicles transporting special goods faced difficulties weighing in at the main gate due to limited space, taking up to 3 minutes. With customs support, the company upgraded the weighing scales and IT systems, reducing entry/exit time for these vehicles to just 10 seconds.
With growing enterprises and foreign trade volume, service demands also increased. To better serve over 500 enterprises in the zone going global, the Provincial Department of Commerce established the province's first comprehensive overseas service platform within the bonded zone in November last year. It provides full-cycle services—from market information and logistics clearance to cross-border finance and legal consulting—reducing trial-and-error costs and operational risks for businesses venturing overseas.
For newly settled enterprises, the bonded zone company established a property management subsidiary and an information and investment development center last year. It implemented a "one-on-one" enterprise service mechanism, offering comprehensive support from policy guidance and setup to production and employee welfare, creating a service model that ensures efficient project conversion from signing to operation.
To accelerate the landing of bonded processing and storage/logistics enterprises, the company planned a basic infrastructure project for the industrial park, investing 137 million yuan to revitalize 160.5 acres of existing land within the zone. At the end of last year, Gansu Huayu Plastics Industry relocated its bonded processing business to the zone to serve the Central Asian agricultural market. By April, 57,000 square meters of storage facilities are expected to be handed over to Gansu Huayu Plastics for use.
A relevant official from the bonded zone company stated they will seize the opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative, align with the company's strategic positioning of "Deepening Central Asia, Linking the Globe," utilize the zone's policy and institutional advantages, strengthen government-customs-enterprise coordination, and create a first-class business environment. Focus will be on precise investment attraction in industrial chains for agricultural/food products, non-ferrous metals, cross-border e-commerce, and new technologies/materials, accelerating integrated domestic and foreign trade development, expanding industrial scale, and enhancing the bonded zone's performance evaluation ranking.
Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone. (File photo)
**Correspondent's Notes: New Thinking Opens New Horizons**
"Thinking determines the path forward." The rapid development of the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone precisely confirms this adage. Grain and oil trade was the zone's traditional business, but upon encountering the "new continent" of mineral products, it immediately seized the opportunity to expand, diversifying the park's formats and forming a闭环 (closed loop) where "going global" and "bringing in" mutually reinforce each other. This represents a broadening of perspective.
After achieving success in clustering industries through international trade in grains, oils, and non-ferrous metals, the zone then turned to address the出海 (going global) needs of domestic enterprises, creating a service hub for domestic new technology, new materials, and new e-commerce companies expanding overseas. This realized a leap from "corridor economy" to "landing economy." This is a shift in thinking.
Faced with positive momentum and new challenges, it顺势而为 (went with the flow), promoting the establishment of the "Government-Customs-Enterprise" coordination mechanism to forge a top-tier business environment, transforming advantages into winning strategies. This is innovation in thinking.
A change in thinking brings broad prospects. Today, through deepening physical trade channels, innovating in digital trade, and building a comprehensive ecosystem, the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone is empowering a "new出海 (global expansion)" with greater depth, breadth, and vitality. It is becoming a processing and distribution center for Central Asian grains and oils, a distribution center for non-ferrous metals, and a hub for cross-border e-commerce, actively building an industrial agglomeration zone with regional influence.
Facts prove that with the right mindset, development can reach new heights.
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