Eine Veränderung in der Außenhandelslandschaft ist eingetreten. Warum ist es genau dieses "größte Überraschungselement"?

In the first quarter of this year, the foreign trade market was full of ups and downs.

China's total merchandise foreign trade reached 11.84 trillion yuan, with double - digit growth in both imports and exports. Driven by factors such as the explosive growth of global demand for AI computing power, the export value of integrated circuits, the largest single product in China's foreign trade, increased by an impressive 77.5 percent.

Behind these figures, cities like Xi'an, Chongqing, and Hefei, known as centers of the semiconductor industry, are coming to the forefront and silently changing the power balance of foreign - trade cities across China. Customs data shows that the growth rates of foreign trade in Xi'an, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Tangshan, and Hefei in the first quarter of this year were 74.2 percent, 35.6 percent, 34.3 percent, 33.8 percent, and 33.7 percent respectively, ranking at the top in China.

In particular, Xi'an, an inland city that is neither on the coast nor at the border, has increased its foreign - trade volume to 181.922 billion yuan, overtaking five cities such as Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Dalian, Yantai, and Foshan. Thus, it has become the "biggest dark horse" on the map of China's foreign trade.

What is the secret behind Xi'an's success?

01 The highest growth rate

Behind the rapid growth of China's foreign trade are cities with a GDP of over one trillion yuan as a stable support. In the first quarter of this year, the foreign - trade volume of 29 such cities reached 8.15 trillion yuan, accounting for 68.9 percent of the national total and up 1.5 percentage points from the previous year.

Since the industrial structures and trading partners of these cities are different, the growth trends of foreign trade also vary greatly. In the first quarter of 2025, 20 out of the 29 cities had a higher growth rate of foreign - trade turnover than the national average (1.3 percent), while nine cities such as Fuzhou and Tangshan had negative growth. In the first quarter of this year, 13 cities had a higher growth rate than the national level (15 percent), and only Nanjing and Quanzhou have not yet achieved positive growth.

Xi'an, an inland city in the west, is right in the "wind". In the first quarter of this year, Xi'an's total foreign - trade value reached 181.922 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 74.2 percent. Among them, exports reached 141.406 billion yuan, an increase of 95.9 percent, and imports reached 40.516 billion yuan, an increase of 25.7 percent.

This foreign - trade growth rate leads among cities with a GDP of over one trillion yuan in China and is nearly 40 percentage points ahead of the second - ranked Chongqing. Thus, Xi'an has also surpassed last year's record of Zhengzhou and raised the "ceiling" for the foreign - trade growth rate in cities with a GDP of over one trillion yuan in the first quarter by more than 30 percentage points. The momentum is impressive.

Zeng Zhaoning, the former vice - president of the Shaanxi Economic Society, explained in the "City Evolution Theory" that Xi'an's strong foreign - trade growth is mainly driven by exports, with key industries such as the semiconductor, new - energy vehicle, and photovoltaic industries serving as a stable support. Market leaders such as Samsung, BYD, and LONGi Green Energy are highly competitive globally and represent Xi'an's strengths in these emerging industries.

Recently, the Guanshan Customs announced that Xi'an's foreign - trade volume in the first two months of this year was 113.72 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 69.3 percent and accounting for 93.9 percent of Shaanxi's foreign - trade turnover. This is 51 percentage points higher than the national foreign - trade growth rate. Among them, exports and imports of electromechanical products account for 93.4 percent and 78.6 percent of the city's total turnover respectively.

This trend continues. According to statistics from the Xi'an Customs in March 2026, the exports of integrated circuits, automatic data - processing equipment and their components, and electrical products in Shaanxi in the first quarter were 76.147 billion yuan, 23.859 billion yuan, and 3.618 billion yuan respectively, a year - on - year increase of 165.98 percent, 238.27 percent, and 81.61 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Tangshan, Hefei, Shenzhen, and Zhengzhou have also recorded foreign - trade growth rates of over 30 percent and have performed excellently. Fuzhou and Tangshan have overcome the negative growth rate of last year, while Chongqing, Hefei, and Shenzhen have returned to the path of strong foreign - trade growth thanks to the upswing of the semiconductor industry.

02 The rapid change of the power balance

Driven by the strong growth of some cities, the power balance in the "club of cities with a GDP of over one trillion yuan" has changed rapidly. Shenzhen has increased its foreign - trade volume to over one trillion yuan and overtaken Shanghai with a lead of over 80 billion yuan to regain the top position in China's foreign trade.

Data shows that Shenzhen's and Shanghai's foreign - trade volumes were 1.32 trillion yuan and 1.23 trillion yuan respectively, a year - on - year increase of 33.6 percent and 21.9 percent respectively. They are the only two cities in China whose foreign - trade volume has exceeded one trillion yuan in a quarter. Behind them, Suzhou, the strongest prefecture - level city in China, with a foreign - trade growth rate of 26.5 percent, has overtaken Beijing and achieved a foreign - trade volume of 799.993 billion yuan to rank third in the list of foreign - trade cities.

These five cities form the top group of China's foreign - trade cities and have a clear lead. Meanwhile, Dongguan, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Qingdao, and Chengdu have a foreign - trade volume of over 200 billion yuan and form a relatively stable second group.

Thanks to a high foreign - trade growth rate, Wuxi has successively overtaken Qingdao, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Tianjin and advanced to the eighth place in the list of foreign - trade cities. Chongqing has also overtaken Qingdao, Chengdu, and Tianjin and sneaked into the top ten of foreign - trade cities. Data shows that the total foreign - trade amounts of Wuxi and Chongqing in the first quarter of this year were 230.724 billion yuan and 221.550 billion yuan respectively, a year - on - year increase of 26.9 percent and 34.3 percent respectively.

This is also a microcosm of the rapid change of the power balance in China's foreign trade. Regardless of the foreign - trade growth rate or the ranking of cities, Xi'an is undoubtedly the favorite -

After overtaking Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Dalian, Yantai, and Foshan one after another, Xi'an has risen from the 19th to the 14th place in the list of China's foreign - trade cities and has become the "biggest dark horse". Looking forward, it has reduced the gap with Tianjin from over 80 billion yuan to over 10 billion yuan. Looking backward, it also has a slight lead over Zhengzhou.

Behind the foreign - trade growth rate often hides the trend of industrial development. In recent years, the semiconductor, photonics, and new - energy vehicle industries in Xi'an have rapidly gained importance and created new competitive advantages in foreign trade.

For many years, China's semiconductor industry has been characterized by an "east - west dichotomy", with the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions being the dominant forces. In recent years, however, high - quality resources have also increasingly gathered in the central and western regions. In terms of the import and export volume of integrated circuits, provinces such as Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Chongqing, in addition to Guangdong and Jiangsu, have formed the second group. In Xi'an, dominated by the two giants Samsung and Micron, the produced flash memory chips have the world's top - ranked market share.

In particular, thanks to the global price increase of memory chips, foreign and domestic companies in Xi'an are increasing their investments. From the commissioning of the first 8 - inch chip production line in northwest China and the full utilization of the annual capacity to the recently announced completion of the first phase of the process optimization of the Samsung factory in Xi'an and the mass production of 236 - layer (V8) products, Xi'an's semiconductor capacity is being released at an accelerated pace.

This will also further boost foreign trade.

03 The emerging key industries

Recently, the stock of domestic company Yuanjie Technology has overtaken that of Kweichow Moutai and has become the "new stock king" on the Chinese stock market. This has also attracted public attention to the semiconductor and photonics industries in Xi'an.

In the global race for AI computing - power infrastructure, the field of optical chips has often been overlooked. These chips are responsible for converting electrical signals into optical signals and are the core components for the internal and external communication of data centers. As the "champion of domestic optical chips", Yuanjie Technology has also attracted the attention of the capital markets.

Recently, Yuanjie Technology announced an important investment plan. The company plans to invest about 12.51 billion yuan in the construction of a research and production center for optical communication semiconductor chips and components in the Fengxi New City of the Xixian New Area to further expand its presence in the field of high - speed optical chips. This will also further strengthen the strength of the semiconductor industry in Xi'an.

The Photonics Manufacturing Park "Curvature Engine" in the High - tech Zone of Xi'an (Zone 1) Photo: Xi'an Daily

With the start of the 15th Five - Year Plan, emerging key industries such as the new - energy vehicle, semiconductor, and AI industries are at the center of the competition between cities and are also important growth poles for foreign trade. The 15th Five - Year Plan of Xi'an proposes to promote emerging industries and accelerate the integrated development of the new - energy vehicle, semiconductor, photonics, and renewable - energy industries.

For example, the city should focus on the development of wide - bandgap semiconductors, advanced packaging, RISC - V, and AI computing power and strive to establish a 12 - inch wafer manufacturing project in Xi'an. In addition, the second phase of the silicon industrial park in the high - tech zone and the modernization of the production line for the new flash memory chip V9 in Xi'an should be promoted.

This will also further promote the integrated development of the semiconductor and photonics industries in Xi'an. In the past, the development of the semiconductor industry in Xi'an was led by Samsung, which promoted packaging, materials, equipment, and services. Today, however, a model of "international giants and domestic market leaders" has been established, with more than 200 companies covering the entire value chain from materials, development, and manufacturing to packaging and application.

According to the plan, by 2030, Xi'an should achieve a gross value of over 300 billion yuan in the new - energy vehicle industry, over 280 billion yuan in the semiconductor and photonics industries, and over 160 billion yuan in the renewable - energy industry. This means that the emerging key industries in Xi'an will grow to over 700 billion yuan in the next five years and will actually reshape the city's competitiveness.

In Zeng Zhaoning's view, these three emerging key industries, which support the strong growth of foreign trade, form a closely - linked value chain that can promote and integrate with each other. Xi'an is already an important location for the new - energy vehicle industry in China. The automobile and semiconductor industries are closely related. In particular, the automation of new - energy vehicles highly depends on semiconductor technology, while photovoltaic power plants can ensure power supply.

Ultimately, the competition in foreign trade is a competition between the industries of cities. The advancement of Xi'an's foreign trade is a signal for the rise of emerging industries such as the new - energy vehicle, semiconductor, photonics, and renewable - energy industries.