Financial precision helps stabilize foreign trade growth

In the first half of this year, China's foreign trade maintained a good operating trend. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, China's import and export of goods reached 25.47 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%. Behind the impressive foreign trade performance report, precise and powerful financial empowerment is indispensable.

At present, the global economic landscape is accelerating its restructuring, geopolitical games are intensifying, and foreign trade enterprises are facing challenges such as uncertain repayment and tight capital turnover in their "going global" operations. To better support the high-quality development of foreign trade, banks have taken measures such as strengthening policy guidance, increasing credit allocation, and accelerating product and service innovation to provide more precise financial support for foreign trade enterprises.

In Wusu City, Xinjiang, a purchase order from Uzbekistan caused difficulties for the head of Xinjiang Boshiran Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. In 2025, the company won a large purchase order for 330 intelligent agricultural machinery, but the transaction involves multiple parties and is difficult to coordinate. In addition, the foreign party's payment ability is insufficient and the payment cycle is too long, resulting in a tight cash flow for us. We urgently need a financial plan that can ensure the safety of funds and facilitate the landing of the transaction, "said the person in charge.

In response to the difficulties faced by Xinjiang Boshiran Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd., the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Branch of the Export Import Bank of China has proactively provided value-added services such as foreign-related consulting and introduced Uzbekistan's sovereign credit to dispel payment concerns and ensure timely delivery of equipment. This year, the Xinjiang branch has once again adopted a combination financial scheme of "100 million yuan export commercial invoice discount+2 billion yuan export seller credit" to meet the demand for expanding production capacity of enterprises and alleviate the long-term payment risk and capital turnover pressure of enterprises in large export orders.

Policy oriented finance continues to exert efforts, injecting strong momentum into the stable growth of foreign trade. It is reported that in the first half of the year, the Export Import Bank of China issued nearly 650 billion yuan in new loans in the field of foreign trade, of which nearly 40% were invested in stabilizing foreign trade entities and stabilizing the foreign trade industry chain. Special quotas were set up to coordinate and support goods trade and service trade, traditional trade and new business models, and promote the development of digital trade and green trade.

Commercial banks focus on the pain points of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises and continuously optimize financial services. Bank of China is adapting to the development trend of new foreign trade formats, accelerating its global system layout, and improving services such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas payment collection. In Yiwu, Zhejiang, Bank of China has launched exclusive inclusive financial products such as "Yishang Cross border Loan". By mining cross-border business data of small and micro foreign trade enterprises, it breaks the traditional mortgage credit model and efficiently matches the capital needs of enterprise stocking turnover and order expansion.

In the eyes of industry insiders, although financial institutions continue to increase their support for the foreign trade sector, the comprehensive service system for foreign trade finance still needs to be further improved due to the increasing external instability and uncertainty factors.

The tense situation in the Middle East directly affects trade between China and the Gulf region, with rising costs of crude oil, shipping, and insurance. At the same time, global trade protectionism is on the rise, and some economies are adjusting tariff policies and strengthening trade restrictions, leading to a decrease in the stability of enterprise orders. Zhang Mengting, a researcher at China Minsheng Bank Research Institute, said that in the future, financial support for foreign trade development needs to help enterprises enhance their risk resistance capabilities.

Small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises are important forces in the field of foreign trade, but they have long faced problems such as difficult and expensive financing. Small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises are mostly operated with light assets, and their core operating assets such as overseas orders and cross-border accounts receivable are difficult to meet bank credit standards. The high financing costs are mainly due to weak order stability, high external uncertainty, and intermediate costs such as guarantees, settlements, and exchange rate risk management, resulting in a significant increase in overall costs, "said Jiang Ping, a finance professor at the University of International Business and Economics.

Financial support for foreign trade should focus on the full chain operational risks of enterprises, helping them enhance their risk resistance and long-term business resilience. Zhang Mengting suggested that financial institutions should build a comprehensive financial service system for foreign trade around "lowering barriers, improving efficiency, controlling risks, and providing full support".