Wuxi leads China's export growth in first four months

A bird's-eye view of Wuxi. [Photo provided to en.wuxi.gov.cn]

Wuxi in Jiangsu province has emerged as the leader among China's top 10 foreign trade cities in the first four months of this year, boasting an impressive export growth rate of 32.6 percent. Its overall import and export growth reached 25.9 percent.

According to the latest statistics from Wuxi Customs, the Wuxi Hi-Tech District Comprehensive Bonded Zone recorded an import and export value of 110.8 billion yuan ($16.36 billion) from January to April, up 78.2 percent year-on-year. This zone has become a pivotal growth engine for Wuxi's high-quality foreign trade development.

Official data indicate that in the first quarter, exports of integrated circuits centered on artificial intelligence computing power grew by 49.3 percent year-on-year, while exports of computer components surged nearly fourfold. Together, these sectors contributed 24.6 percentage points to the city's export growth.

Since last year, the global AI industry has entered a phase of large-scale implementation, accelerating the deployment of new computing infrastructure such as AI servers and cloud data centers. This has led to a surge in global demand for chips, particularly memory chips, positioning Wuxi at the forefront of this industry boom.

As the only prefecture-level city in the country with a complete IC industry chain, Wuxi hosts over 600 upstream and downstream enterprises, forming an industry scale exceeding 250 billion yuan. This encompasses chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and supporting equipment and raw materials.

The AI wave has also created new opportunities for Wuxi-made products to expand globally. In the first four months, Wuxi exported 179.37 billion yuan worth of electromechanical products, an increase of 45.7 percent, accounting for 79 percent of the total export value. Among these, IC exports reached 44.94 billion yuan, up 50.7 percent, while computer accessories exports soared to 33.61 billion yuan, a 4.4-fold increase.