General Administration of Customs: China's goods trade continues to grow steadily, with the total import and export value increasing by 3.5% year-on-year in the first 8 months.

On September 8th, the General Administration of Customs issued a document stating that according to customs statistics, in the first 8 months of 2025, China's merchandise trade continued to grow steadily, with a total import and export value of 29.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year. Among them, exports were 17.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.9%; imports were 11.96 trillion yuan, a decrease of 1.2%, narrowing by 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous 7 months. In August, China's total import and export value of merchandise trade was 3.87 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5%. Among them, exports were 2.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.8%; imports were 1.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.7%, marking three consecutive months of growth in both exports and imports. Main characteristics of China's imports and exports in the first 8 months: 1. General trade and processing trade import and export growth In the first 8 months, China's general trade import and export value was 18.89 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.2%, accounting for 63.9% of the total foreign trade value; processing trade import and export was 5.34 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.1%, accounting for 18.1%; import and export through bonded logistics was 4.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.6%. 2. Imports and exports to ASEAN and EU increased In the first 8 months, ASEAN was China's largest trading partner, with a total trade value of 4.93 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.7%, accounting for 16.7% of the total foreign trade value. The EU was China's second largest trading partner, with a total trade value of 3.88 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.3%, accounting for 13.1% of the total foreign trade value. The United States was China's third largest trading partner, with a total trade value of 2.73 trillion yuan, a decrease of 13.5%, accounting for 9.2% of the total foreign trade value. During the same period, China's total import and export value with countries participating in the "Belt and Road" initiative was 15.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%. 3. Private enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises' import and export growth In the first 8 months, the import and export value of private enterprises was 16.89 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.4%, accounting for 57.1% of the total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the same period last year; the import and export value of foreign-invested enterprises was 8.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3%, accounting for 29.1% of the total foreign trade value; the import and export value of state-owned enterprises was 4.02 trillion yuan, a decrease of 8.1%, accounting for 13.6% of the total foreign trade value. 4. Mechanical and electrical products account for over 60% of exports, with significant growth in integrated circuits and automotive exports In the first 8 months, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products were 10.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.2%, accounting for 60.2% of the total export value. Among them, the export of automatic data processing equipment and components was 946.59 billion yuan, an increase of 0.6%; integrated circuits were 905.18 billion yuan, an increase of 23.3%; and automobiles were 605.23 billion yuan, an increase of 11.9%. During the same period, the export of labor-intensive products was 2.75 trillion yuan, a decrease of 1.5%, accounting for 15.6% of the total export value. Among them, clothing and clothing accessories were 738 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.7%; textiles were 678.75 billion yuan, an increase of 2.6%; plastic products were 500.4 billion yuan, an increase of 0.6%. The export of Shenzhen Agricultural Power Group was 472.55 billion yuan, an increase of 2%. 5. The prices of major imported commodities have fallen, while the import value of mechanical and electrical products has increased In the first 8 months, China imported 8.02 billion tons of iron ore, a decrease of 1.6%, with an average import price falling by 14.1%; 3.76 billion tons of crude oil, an increase of 2.5%, with an average import price falling by 12.9%; 3 billion tons of coal, a decrease of 12.2%, with an average import price falling by 25%; 81.913 million tons of natural gas, a decrease of 5.9%, with an average import price falling by 7.1%; 73.312 million tons of soybeans, an increase of 4%, with an average import price falling by 11.9%; 26.733 million tons of refined oil, a decrease of 17.8%, with an average import price falling by 3.9%. In addition, 17.918 million tons of primary shaped plastics were imported, a decrease of 6.8%, with an average import price falling by 0.4%; 3.536 million tons of unwrought copper and copper materials were imported, a decrease of 2.1%, with an average import price increasing by 5%. During the same period, the import value of mechanical and electrical products was 4.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.2%. This article is compiled from customs releases, editor: Chen Wenfang.