Yiyang's local industries fuel foreign trade growth

Yiyang, a city in central China's Hunan province, recorded 6.99 billion yuan ($970.83 million) in imports and exports in the first seven months of 2026, up 71.3 percent year on year, the fastest growth in the province.

Local manufacturing drives the surge. About 95.2 percent of exported goods are produced locally. Yiyang is known as China's home of aluminum electrolytic capacitors, with one in every 12 such capacitors worldwide made there. Private enterprises accounted for 94.1 percent of foreign trade in the first half, with 203 companies recording import and export performance, 31 more than a year earlier.

PCB Industrial Park. [Photo/gxt.hunan.gov.cn]

Trade with Belt and Road partner countries jumped 109.5 percent to 4.31 billion yuan in the first half. Hunan Xiangqiao Food imports cocoa from Africa and exports processed products back to the continent. "Orders are booked through the end of the year," said Wang Fang, the company's foreign trade manager.

The government is helping local firms go global. Hunan Shangneng Automobile has exported over 4,800 modified vehicles this year to Algeria, Morocco and Mongolia. "Without taking the first step, there will be no next step," said Xu Zhewei, the company's general manager. In June, the Chaoyang Bonded Logistics Center (Type B) was approved, giving Yiyang a bonded platform at its doorstep.

Yiyang's rise demonstrates that inland cities can achieve foreign trade breakthroughs by building on local industries and improving government services.