The Pudong New Area in east China's Shanghai saw its foreign trade value reach a record high of 795.27 billion yuan (about 116.54 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2026, up 32.8 percent year on year, the Shanghai Customs announced.
Of the first-quarter foreign trade, exports reached 314.62 billion yuan (about 46.10 billion U.S. dollars), increasing by 25.7 percent, and imports rose 37.9 percent to 480.65 billion yuan (about 70.43 billion U.S. dollars), year on year respectively.
In the January-March period, there were 15,000 foreign trade enterprises with actual import and export performance in the area, an increase of 541 compared with the same period of last year.
The area's imports and exports with the countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative reached 299.66 billion yuan (about 43.91 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 29.9 percent year on year, accounting for 37.7 percent of the new area's total value of imports and exports in the three-month period.
In addition, the new area's imports and exports with ASEAN, Latin America and Africa increased by 22.8 percent, 13.9 percent and 65.8 percent respectively over the same period of last year. Its trade with the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Japan and other countries also achieved growth. High-end and green products emerged as major export drivers in the period.
In the first quarter, exports of ships and marine engineering equipment, and ship-to-shore (STS) cranes reached 9.37 billion yuan (about 1.37 billion U.S. dolalrs) and 5.02 billion yuan (about 735.6 million U.S. dollars) respectively, with the growth rates reaching 93.9 percent and 100 percent respectively.
For the new area's artificial intelligence industry, its exports of industrial robots reached 440 million yuan (about 64.48 million U.S dollars) in the first three months, increasing by 67.1 percent, and that of intelligent bionic robots reached 47.342 million yuan (about 6.94 million U.S. dollars), accounting for more than 20 percent of the corresponding national total.
In the three-month period, the new area's exports of the "new trio," namely, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products increased by 1.2 times, and its exports of wind turbine generators increased by four times.
In the first quarter, the Putong New Area's imports of consumer goods such as textiles and clothing, bags and edible oil rose by 9.1 percent, 6.2 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively.
Its imports of electronic consumer goods such as household appliances and notebook computers increased by 30.6 percent and 1.1 times, respectively year on year.
The new area's imports of industrial intermediate products such as electronic components and computer parts increased by 25.9 percent and 1.8 times, respectively, over the same period of 2025.
The Pudong New Area is a major state-level development zone in Shanghai, located on the east bank of the Huangpu River. Established in 1993, it serves as a premier financial, innovation and high-tech hub.
Shanghai's Pudong New Area witnesses record-high foreign trade in January-March
