According to Zhangjiagang Customs, the city's total import and export value was 247.49 billion yuan ($33.91 billion) in the first 11 months of this year. Exports amounted to 130.95 billion yuan, representing an 11 percent year-on-year increase.
An aerial view of Zhangjiagang Port. [Photo/VCG]
Since the second half of the year, Zhangjiagang's foreign trade has shown even greater resilience, with the third quarter's import and export growth reaching 7.4 percent. Exports experienced year-on-year growth every month, with particularly strong performance in the second half of the year. This period saw five consecutive months of double-digit export growth, reaching 23.7 percent, 16.9 percent, 10.4 percent, 21.4 percent, and 10.4 percent, respectively.
Foreign-invested enterprises achieved 68.19 billion yuan in imports and exports, growing by 11.6 percent – a rate 17 percentage points higher than the overall foreign trade growth.
Exports of mechanical and electrical products surged. In the first 11 months, the city exported 39.71-billion-yuan worth of such products, marking a 30.3 percent year-on-year increase and accounting for 30.3 percent of the city's total exports.
Zhangjiagang Customs has continuously optimized the business environment at the port, issuing over 5,600 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) certificates worth over 1.6 billion yuan in the first 11 months, ranking first among all county-level cities in Jiangsu province in both the number and value of certificates issued. The customs have also tailored solutions for enterprises to help them maximize the benefits of RCEP policies, resulting in savings of 29.46 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 159 percent.
Nationally pioneering the "joint identification and integrated supervision" model for bulk cargo imports, Zhangjiagang has embedded regulatory steps into the cargo loading, unloading, storage, and transfer process, saving key enterprises in the jurisdiction over 60 million yuan in logistics costs annually.
To address challenges faced by bonded port areas, such as limited berth resources, long ship waiting times, and high transportation costs, Zhangjiagang Customs has promoted interconnectivity among nine enterprises. This initiative, involving companies like Freetrade Science & Technology, Dow, and Vopak, has successfully extended the reach of port resources within the zone to businesses located outside. By enabling the shared use of port resources, this initiative has saved enterprises over 23 million yuan in transportation costs.