China's foreign trade up 15 pct in Q1

China's foreign trade grew 15 percent year on year in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday.

At a press conference held in Beijing, officials from the General Administration of Customs of China briefed the media of China's imports and exports for the first three months of 2026.

"In the first quarter of 2026, China's total value of goods imports and exports reached 11.84 trillion yuan (about 1.73 trillion U.S. dollars), up 15 percent year on year. Of which, exports rose 11.9 percent from the same period last year to 6.85 trillion yuan, while imports went up 19.6 percent to 4.99 trillion yuan," said Wang Jun, deputy head of the General Administration of Customs of China.

He said the imports and exports performance in the first three months had five main features.

First, the scale of imports and exports reached a new high for the same period.

Second, various kinds of business entities saw broad-based growth.

"In the first quarter of 2026, China's private enterprises recorded imports and exports totaling 6.78 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.2 percent, taking up 57.3 percent of the country's total import and export value. During the same period, foreign-invested companies registered 3.47 trillion yuan in foreign trade while state-owned enterprises reached 1.56 trillion yuan, up 16.1 percent and 8 percent, respectively," said Wang.

Third, market diversification has been further consolidated, as China's imports and exports with the Belt and Road partner countries, ASEAN, Latin America, Africa and other economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) all increased by more than 10 percent in the first quarter, said Wang.

Fourth, new growth drivers for export continued to gain momentum.

"In Q1, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products hit 4.34 trillion yuan, up 18.3 percent, accounting for 63.4 percent of the country's total exports, up by 3.5 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, exports of green products such as electric vehicles, lithium batteries, as well as wind turbine generator kits and their parts rose by 77.5 percent, 50.4 percent, and 45.2 percent, respectively," said Wang.

Fifth, the expansion of domestic demand drives the growth of imports in the first quarter and there were increases in China's imports of energy products, ores and metals, mechanical and electrical products as well as consumer goods, said Wang.