Lianyungang Port is the largest seaport in Jiangsu Province and a key maritime outlet serving central and western China as well as Central Asia. Data shows that the port achieved remarkable foreign trade results in the first three quarters, with export cargo value reaching 175.98 billion yuan, up 21.1% year on year, while imports totaled 186.72 billion yuan, up 10.7%.
As an international hub seaport under the Belt and Road Initiative, Lianyungang Port has continued to optimize its cargo mix since 2026, moving away from a single structure dominated by traditional bulk imports such as coal and ore. Exports of automobiles, engineering machinery, and wind power equipment have grown significantly. From January to September, the port exported 311,700 vehicles, up 15.5% year on year, with exports of new energy vehicles surging 115.5% year on year. At the same time, exports of specialty products such as fertilizer, seaweed, and loach have increased. In addition, as the first international cooperation entity under the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Cooperation Base operated 732 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight trains, up 7.3%, further highlighting its core strength in sea-rail intermodal transport.
Port Connects Land and Sea as Foreign Trade Thrives
As the most core component of Lianyungang Port, the Lianyungang port area is an important channel for "Made in China" products heading to the global market. In 1992, it launched China's first international container transport train. Today, tens of thousands of foreign trade goods move in and out every day. Every move at the port reflects the pulse of foreign trade.
Bulk Cargo Can Be Loaded in as Fast as 2 Hours
This is Berth 61 at the Lianyungang Port operating terminal, where wind turbine blade loading and unloading is currently underway. Standing here feels like stepping into a "giant's kingdom." The white giant with a width greater than an adult's height is a domestically produced wind power blade. Standing next to the enormous blade, a person looks especially small, and the sense of impact is immediate. A single blade exceeds 90 meters in length and weighs more than 40 tons. This batch of wind power equipment was produced by a local new energy enterprise in Jiangsu, with a total cargo value of 90 million yuan. The vessel set sail for Oman on November 5.
Lianyungang Port is both the starting point of multiple national-level transport arteries such as the Longhai Railway and the Lianhuo Expressway, and an important maritime outlet for China's central and western regions, giving it outstanding land-sea intermodal advantages. On average, more than 100,000 tons of cargo enter and leave the port each day. Berths are also in tight supply. In foreign trade, timeliness is competitiveness. As soon as one vessel completes operations and leaves berth, the next one quickly comes alongside, or even queues for a spot.
While loading is proceeding intensively at the terminal, export operations for engineering machinery are also advancing simultaneously. In the first three quarters of 2026, Jiangsu's engineering machinery exports showed outstanding growth. XCMG's engineering equipment has continued to strengthen its international competitiveness, and the company keeps expanding into Southeast Asian, European, and Latin American markets, with much of its machinery shipping out from here. Relying on Lianyungang Customs' "advance declaration" and "direct loading and direct lifting" supervision models, cargo can begin loading in as fast as two hours after completing procedures.
Customized Lifting Gear Reduces Cargo Damage and Boosts Efficiency
Whether it is wind power blades or engineering vehicles, large-item lifting cannot be done without customized lifting gear. The hook first attaches to the lifting gear, and the lifting gear then hoists the cargo. Different large items vary greatly in shape and weight, but with dedicated lifting gear, cargo damage can be prevented, safety ensured, and loading and unloading efficiency improved.
Frontline technical backbones at the port have specially established an innovation studio and independently developed more than 300 types of non-standard lifting gear across seven major categories. In this set of lifting gear models, some are suitable for extended buses, while others are specially designed for hoisting heavy engineering machinery. As long as an enterprise launches new equipment, the team can refer to the models and quickly customize matching lifting gear through 3D printing.
Smart Facilities Upgrade Iteratively as Land-Sea Intermodal Transport Expands in Depth
The port's infrastructure is also continuously being upgraded. This square black building is the Lianyungang International Automobile Green Smart Logistics Center. With 48 robots operating unmanned around the clock, vehicles can be stored here in just three minutes, going through the entire process by "taking elevators, living in buildings, and driving autonomously," with capacity to park up to 5,200 vehicles at the same time. Compared with traditional methods, vehicle turnover time, meaning the time from vehicle preparation to loading onto the ship, can be shortened by nearly two days.
In the first three quarters of 2026, Lianyungang Port exported more than 310,000 vehicles, up 15% year on year. Expanding the view further, moving north and south along the coastline, the Ganyu Port Area and Xuwei Port Area have been completed and put into use one after another. Energy materials such as LNG and crude oil are unloaded here, providing stable supply support for industrial clusters in Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan, as well as the Xuwei petrochemical base.
At present, Lianyungang Port's inland river container routes cover the hinterlands of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan. Near-sea and ocean-going liner routes are dense, and rail-water intermodal trains reach Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and other provinces and regions along the Longhai line. The land-sea intermodal network is becoming increasingly dense, and the port's foreign trade capacity continues to rise. From the many new changes at Lianyungang Port, one can truly see the vibrant new atmosphere of foreign trade.
Heavy Equipment Goes Global: A New Way of Looking at Engineering Equipment
In the first three quarters of 2026, Jiangsu's engineering machinery exports showed outstanding growth. These hardcore pieces of equipment, from firefighting giants reaching hundreds of meters into the sky to the "steel mantis" that appeared in The Wandering Earth, have gained recognition in multiple overseas markets. Now, enterprises are also selling "technology + services + complete solutions" as a package to overseas construction sites, completing an upgrade in their going-global model.
The aerial platform of this fire truck exceeds 100 meters. With one long arm fully extended, its operating height can reach more than 30 residential floors, making it a key asset for firefighting in high-rise buildings. Its capabilities are not only about "being tall." Its water output reaches 1,800 liters per minute, and with the power of a single arm it can quickly open an aerial lifeline. While this fire truck competes on height advantage and rapid rescue, the next piece of equipment brings science fiction directly into reality.
This white product is called the "steel mantis," and it is also an "actor" that appeared in the science fiction film The Wandering Earth. Its chassis is somewhat different from that of an ordinary excavator. Each leg can be raised independently, allowing it to operate in complex field terrain and harsh working conditions. This ultra-large-tonnage plateau mining truck is specially customized for the mining market in the South American plateau region. Its "appetite" is astonishing: it can load 400 tons of ore at a time, and with an unmanned kit installed, it can operate without a driver.
From urban heights to dangerous field locations and then to high-altitude unmanned mining areas, this engineering equipment has gained market recognition in Europe, Australia, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and other regions. Accompanying these hardcore pieces of equipment overseas is an "invisible service network" covering the globe. On this industrial internet platform, once equipment is delivered, it enters full lifecycle management: operating status, real-time energy consumption, and potential faults can all be monitored in real time even across vast distances. Equipment maintenance has been upgraded from a passive "repair after breakdown" model to full-cycle service based on "advance prediction and proactive maintenance."
According to Nanjing Customs statistics, in the first three quarters of 2026, Jiangsu Province's engineering machinery exports reached 74.3 billion yuan, up more than 10% year on year. Among them, XCMG Machinery's overseas revenue rose to 56.5% of total company revenue, with the overseas revenue share exceeding half for the first time, as hardcore heavy equipment exports set a new growth curve.
Mountains and Seas Linked as a Thoroughfare, Silk Road Cooperation Toward the Future
Just as domestically produced hardcore engineering machinery is being sold globally along export channels, economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asian countries is also continuing to deepen along this major east-west corridor. In Jiangsu, from Lianyungang's land-sea intermodal hub to Nanjing's trade service platform, a two-way mutually beneficial commercial corridor linking logistics, trade, and industry is becoming smoother and more efficient.
At the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Base in Lianyungang, Ajinhan from Kazakhstan has worked and lived in China for nearly 10 years. Checking train schedules, verifying cargo documents, and coordinating customs clearance and transloading are part of his daily work. From the first time he saw the sea in China to staying in China to work and live, Ajinhan has gradually adapted to the busy pace here and to Chinese food. In his office, traditional Chinese pastries and snacks are always kept on hand so he can take a bite when working overtime or too busy to eat.
Recently, Ajinhan has had a "happy worry." The base has more and more containers, and the yard space has become somewhat tight. Kazakhstan is a landlocked country lacking a seaport. In the past, products such as wheat and ferroalloy were inconvenient to ship out. Today, the "one container to the end" international intermodal model allows their goods not only to enter the Chinese market but also to be transloaded at Lianyungang for shipment to Southeast Asia, Europe, and other places.
Wang Luyao, deputy chief of the Logistics Management Section of Lianyungang Customs under Nanjing Customs, introduced innovations such as the "bonded + export" container mixed consolidation model, including "direct vehicle-vessel pickup" for transit containers and railway cage car transport for transit vehicles. From January to October 2026, a total of 809 China-Europe freight trains were supervised, up 4.8% year on year.
In Nanjing, the China-Central Asia Trade Smooth Cooperation Platform is also operating efficiently. Akhayim Aisaike from Kyrgyzstan settled in Nanjing after graduating from university, focusing on commercial matchmaking and industrial cooperation between China and Kyrgyzstan as well as between China and Central Asian countries. This two-way enabling trade facilitation platform helps Central Asian specialty products enter the Chinese market and also connects enterprises seeking to expand into Central Asian markets. At present, the platform has linked thousands of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain and regularly carries out business negotiations, product exhibitions, and project matchmaking.
From Lianyungang's cross-border logistics hub to Nanjing's highland for trade services, Jiangsu is forming a complete closed loop from "cross-border cargo transport" to "precise trade matchmaking" and then to "industrial collaborative implementation," building a cooperation system of "logistics customs clearance + trade matchmaking + industrial linkage" and driving continuous expansion of cooperation between China and Central Asian countries.
Exports Full of "New" Highlights, Imports Stronger in "Volume"
Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu not only has rich categories and large quantities of export goods, but its import data for the first three quarters of 2026 is equally impressive. Imported fertilizer reached 4.96 billion yuan in cargo value, up 90.9% year on year, ranking first in the country in import scale. Imported nickel ore reached 5.84 billion yuan, accounting for 28.2% of the national total; imported lead ore reached 3.5 billion yuan, accounting for 16.4% of the national total. With more routes being added and customs clearance efficiency improving, this important coastal port will continue to inject a steady stream of momentum into the stable growth of foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta and across the country.
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