GACC: China's foreign trade value hits new record in Jan-Feb

China's foreign trade value totalled Yuan 7.73 trillion ($1.12 trillion) during the first two months of 2026, recording a huge 18.3% on-year leap and marking a record high for the two month period, according to the latest data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on March 10.

Within the total, the value of exports mounted by 19.2% on year to Yuan 4.62 trillion, while imports surged by 17.1% on year to Yuan 3.11 trillion during the same period.

China usually bundles the January-February trade data in its March releases as the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday usually falls into either of the two months, Mysteel Global noted.

China's top trade partner over January-February was the ASEAN region with the trade value standing at Yuan 1.24 trillion, up 20.3% on year and accounting for 16% of the total trade value, according to the release.

The European Union was China's second largest trading partner, with the foreign trade value registering Yuan 998.9 billion, jumping 19.9% on year, the Customs data showed.

In contrast, the United States, the third-largest trade partner, saw its trade value with China over January-February slump by 16.9% on year to Yuan 609.7 billion, the GACC statistics indicated.

As for China's trade with "Belt and Road Initiative" countries, the combined value amounted to Yuan 4.02 trillion during the first two months, higher by 20% on year, according to GACC.

Over January-February, privately-owned Chinese enterprises recorded a 22.8% on-year jump in their foreign trade value at Yuan 4.51 trillion, with their share of the total climbing by 1.2 percentage points from the same period in 2024 to 58.3%, the GACC release showed.

In parallel, foreign-invested firms in China logged a 15.3% on-year rise in trade value during the same period to top Yuan 2.2 trillion, accounting for 28.5% of the total, Mysteel calculated based on the GACC data.

Among the major products China exported over the first two months, the total value of machinery, electrical products and electronics came in at Yuan 2.89 trillion, up by 24.3% on year and contributing to 62.6% of the country's total export value, the official data show.

As for China's imports of bulk commodities over January-February, iron ore, crude oil and coal all posted on-year rises in volume, moving up by 10%, 15.8% and 1.5% respectively to 210 million tonnes, 96.9 million tonnes and 77.2 million tonnes, according to the Customs data.

Written by Bruce Wei, weizhanyi@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com