Shaping the 'asymmetric combat power' of foreign trade
More than 590 kilometers, which is the distance from this city to the nearest harbor; Over 13000 kilometers, it is the longest flight distance for foreign trade routes in this city; Over 11190 kilometers, it is the farthest distance traveled by the China Europe freight train departing from this city.
An inland city must strive every kilometer forward.
This time, Hefei has been listed as one of the top ten Chinese cities in terms of foreign trade competitiveness in 2025 by China Customs magazine.
Hefei has gained a reputation as a "venture capital city" and a "city of science and technology innovation", and its foreign trade competitiveness naturally stems from innovation. This "asymmetric combat power" shaped by innovation has enabled Hefei to enter the top ten cities in China's foreign trade competitiveness for the first time, ranking eighth, first in the central and western regions, and higher than other provincial capitals in the Yangtze River Delta.
Retrieve nearly 10 million pieces of 'first-hand data'
In 2024, it was still ranked 15th, and this year it has entered 7th place in a row, ranking 8th in the country and breaking into the top ten for the first time. "Opening the book" China's 100 Foreign Trade Cities (2025) - The Pioneer Force of China's Foreign Trade ", Zhang Chengguang from the Legal Statistics Department of Luzhou Customs told reporters that among the top 10, there are not only world first tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but also big port cities like Shenzhen and Ningbo. It is not easy for Hefei to be among them.
The list of China's Top 100 Foreign Trade Cities was compiled by the "China Customs" magazine under the supervision of the General Administration of Customs. The research began in 2006 and the ranking was first released in 2007.
It is reported that more than 100 foreign trade experts participated in this year's evaluation work, retrieved nearly 10 million first-hand customs data, and calculated 338 prefecture level and above cities in China, whose total foreign trade value accounts for more than 99.9% of China's total.
The maturity of an economic monitoring index generally takes 5 to 10 years. The research conducted by the General Administration of Customs in the past 20 years has reflected significant changes in China's foreign trade at many time points. For example, in the 2015 report, cities in the central and western regions first appeared on the list of the top 20 cities.
However, Hefei's total import and export commodity volume will rank 25th among cities in China in 2024. Why can its foreign trade competitiveness enter the top 10 in the country?
This is because the ranking of China's urban foreign trade competitiveness has a more multidimensional scoring standard, which has undergone several rounds of upgrading and adjustment, forming today's relatively mature three-level indicator evaluation system——
1 overall index - comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade;
5 sub item competitiveness - level, structure, efficiency, innovation, potential sub item competitiveness;
More than 20 tertiary indicators, including "hard power" indicators such as "scale, growth rate, and share", as well as "soft power" indicators such as "product technology height, export environmental benefits, and independent brand development", and "new track" indicators such as "number of innovative enterprises and development status of new business models", are a comprehensive "physical examination" of a city's foreign trade strength.
That is to say, competitiveness ranking not only depends on the existing scale of foreign trade, but also on the structure and development potential.
The transformation of "industrial landmarks"
How does a city's innovation capability affect its foreign trade competitiveness?
The "100 Cities of China's Foreign Trade (2025) - Pioneering Force of China's Foreign Trade" points out that Hefei leads industrial innovation with technological innovation, creates urban "landmark industries" such as automobiles, integrated circuits, and equipment manufacturing, and greatly enhances its comprehensive competitiveness in foreign trade.
Wang Baozhu, from the Legal and Statistical Department of Luzhou Customs, told reporters that innovation and technology in the indicator system are exactly the bonus points for Hefei.
Hefei welcomed Haier in 2000 and Midea in 2003, ushering in a new era of home appliance exports; In 2008, BOE settled down and significantly increased its high-end manufacturing exports. The new display industry cluster developed from "zero" to the first overall ranking in the country; In 2011, Lianbao settled down and became the largest import and export enterprise in Anhui. Even today, Lenovo laptops and other intelligent terminals are still the main export force of Hefei Economic Development Zone. In the first three quarters of this year, the electronic information industry in the zone accounted for 79.3% of the total import and export volume of the district; BYD settled in 2021, and by 2024, the export volume of new energy vehicles in Hefei will increase by 3.2 times, helping Anhui to become the top exporter of automobiles in the country.
Adhering to technology as the forefront, Hefei's strategic emerging industry cluster has formed strong international competitiveness, and the "industrial landmark" has also developed from a single household appliance to automobiles, new displays, integrated circuits, and so on. Reflected in the export structure, Hefei is continuously transforming towards high-tech and high value-added "new three types" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, solar cells).
In 2024, Hefei's "new three types" exports will account for over 70% of Anhui Province's total, with a growth rate of 31.2%; The export of mechanical and electrical products accounts for 80.3% of the city's total goods trade export value, 20.9 percentage points higher than the national average, ranking first in the country. In the first three quarters of 2025, the proportion of high-tech product exports in Hefei will be 15.3 percentage points higher than the national average.
It is precisely the leading innovation strength that has driven the transformation and upgrading of Hefei's foreign trade, achieving high-quality development of an outward oriented economy.
Growth over 10 times in 20 years
The product list has been verified to be correct, and the packaging code has been verified to be correct
The inspection is correct, and the goods can be released
Recently, at Hefei Jinghe Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., storage and transportation specialist Yang Guobei was wearing a "new weapon" on his head for photoresist non sensitive intelligent inspection. Through this AR helmet style device, he had real-time conversations with the big data backend of Luzhou Customs, reducing the clearance time that used to take several days to just over ten minutes.
With the rise of leading panel companies such as BOE, the monthly production capacity of JA Solar has also increased from 10000 to 150000 pieces, and its market share of display driver chips will rank among the top global OEM companies in 2024. Ge Ling, a customs officer at Jinghe, told reporters that when she first joined the company in 2017, key raw materials such as photoresist were only imported in a few bottles at a time. "Now sometimes it's even a whole truckload. According to the old method, these raw materials need to wait for three to four days at the Shanghai port, and then be released after passing the customs inspection
The shelf life of photoresist is usually only six months, and storage not only consumes the shelf life, but also requires refrigerated containers, which cost thousands of yuan to rent per day. In order to address the pain points of short shelf life and long turnover cycle of key raw materials, Hefei has taken the lead in the construction of the "Smart Customs Application Scenario for Imported Hazardous Chemicals Inspection in the New Industry" nationwide, allowing advanced raw material enterprise warehouses to use "AR+AI" technology for real-time identification, and then undergo intelligent analysis and remote inspection through big data backend.
Li Hao, from the Comprehensive Business Department of Luzhou Customs, told reporters: "According to enterprise calculations, it can shorten the turnover cycle by 5 days and save costs of more than 10 million yuan per year
By 2024, there will be over 400 integrated circuit related enterprises in Hefei, making it a key hub of China's chip industry. How can we serve our advantageous industries well? Luzhou Customs has launched a series of innovative measures, such as proposing the "High tech Goods Control and Inspection Mode for Vacuum Packaging" in the first batch nationwide. Precise instruments, equipment, and raw materials can be opened and inspected by local customs, saving logistics time of about 3 working days per customs declaration and saving logistics costs of 300000 yuan for enterprises annually. This policy has benefited 20 enterprises and over 3000 products, and has been replicated and promoted nationwide.
For example, for imported raw materials in the integrated circuit and new display industries, the pre-approval process has shortened the review time from 10 working days to 10 minutes; Support the expansion of imports for key components and important raw materials of integrated circuits, sort out over 1000 types of spare parts, and assign dedicated personnel to provide classification guidance to help enterprises quickly and standardly declare.
Over the past 20 years, the total import and export volume of Hefei City has increased from over 30 billion yuan to over 400 billion yuan. Against the backdrop of convenient customs clearance in our country, Hefei has achieved both "manageable" and "fast" communication through targeted policies and technological innovation.
Departing from Hefei, the world arrives
Even if the industry is competitive, a major pain point faced by inland cities is still how to break through the bottleneck of "going global". Instead of sighing at the ocean, it's better to take action and move the 'sea outlet' to the 'doorstep'.
How can Hefei draw a three-dimensional international logistics network of "water, land, and air" on a blank sheet of paper?
In 2014, the first Hefei China Europe freight train departed and has since operated over 5400 trains, covering 20 countries. By 2025, it will be upgraded to a national level China Europe freight train hub.
The Xinqiao Airport, which was completed and put into operation in 2013, has become one of the four major international air cargo hubs in China, serving 30 enterprises such as BOE and Sunshine Power, with an annual import and export value exceeding 10 billion yuan.
Since the 14th Five Year Plan, with the completion and operation of the Yangtze River Diversion Project, Hefei Paihe Port has become the first container terminal on the Jianghuai Canal; In 2023, the Yangtze River to Huaihe River Diversion Project will fully open up shipping, and Hefei, which is not located near the sea or along the Yangtze River, will become a "golden waterway" hub connecting the hinterland of the Central Plains and the Yangtze River Delta.
In 2023, Paihe Port was approved for Class 9 dangerous goods operation qualification, becoming a port capable of handling lithium battery related products. This means that the photovoltaic modules, energy storage equipment, and new energy vehicles produced in Hefei can be directly shipped by water to the world, and can be shipped out of the factory.
Within a radius of 10 kilometers from Paihe Port, 70% of advanced manufacturing enterprises in Hefei are gathered, including Jianghuai Automobile, Lianbao, NIO, Midea, etc. The Jianghuai Automobile New Port Base is only 5 kilometers away from Paihe Port, and logistics costs can be reduced by 16000 yuan per month.
The continuous optimization of the regional logistics system and the continuous improvement of logistics operation efficiency have provided strong support for the development of Hefei's foreign trade, and are important infrastructure guarantees for Hefei's foreign trade competitiveness to enter the top ten in the country.
From the central hinterland to the open highland with global influence, it is not just a series of digital changes, but also a city's determination to measure its development with its footsteps.
Hefei's foreign trade competitiveness has entered the top ten in the country for the first time, which is the result of the resonance of multiple factors such as industrial upgrading, technological innovation, logistics breakthroughs, policy support, and enterprise vitality. In the first 10 months of 2025, Hefei's import and export growth rate ranked first among the trillion yuan GDP cities in the Yangtze River Delta, demonstrating strong growth potential. The rise of inland cities represented by Hefei will become an important variable in the future changes of China's foreign trade pattern. (Reporter Xuan Lan)