GUANGZHOU -- South China's Guangdong province saw its foreign trade hit a record high of 9.49 trillion yuan (about $1.36 trillion) in 2025, rising 4.4 percent year-on-year, local authorities have said.

This has secured Guangdong's position as China's leading provincial-level region in terms of total trade volume for a 40th consecutive year, according to the provincial branch of the General Administration of Customs of China.

Guangdong's exports rose 2.5 percent to 6.03 trillion yuan last year, while its imports increased 7.8 percent to 3.46 trillion yuan.

Guangdong's foreign trade accounted for approximately one-fifth of the national total, contributing 24.1 percent to the growth of China's overall foreign trade.

Zhang Ke, deputy director of the provincial customs branch, said that Guangdong's export structure has optimized, gearing toward higher-end, smarter and greener products.

In 2025, its exports of electromechanical products totaled 4.15 trillion yuan, which was up 7.3 percent. Such products accounted for 68.7 percent of the province's total export value, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Notably, exports of green and intelligent products such as drones, 3D printers and industrial robots surged 40.9 percent, 37.1 percent and 33.9 percent, respectively, and agricultural machinery exports doubled.

Zhang noted that Guangdong's import demand continued to expand last year, with the province importing integrated circuits worth a cumulative 1.3 trillion yuan -- up 15.5 percent year-on-year and accounting for 37.5 percent of its total import value.

Imports of essential consumer goods such as grain, dairy products, aquatic products and edible oil all achieved double-digit growth.

In 2025, the number of companies in Guangdong that reported on import and export performance climbed 17.6 percent year-on-year to 172,000.

Of these firms, private enterprises numbered 148,000, which was a rise of 20 percent, with their combined import and export value growing 4.9 percent year-on-year to 6.07 trillion yuan.

Meanwhile, the import and export volumes of foreign-invested enterprises came in at 3.03 trillion yuan, rising 6.5 percent and indicating a sustained, positive recovery trend.