The General Administration of Customs recently released data for major foreign trade cities across the country in the first half of 2026, showing Zhongshan in 29th place.

During the period, Zhongshan's total foreign trade value reached 162.02 billion yuan, up 13.1% year on year — a jump of 12 percentage points from the 1.1% growth recorded for 2025. Exports stood at 139.75 billion yuan, up 10.8% year on year.

As a major manufacturing hub, Zhongshan is home to mature industrial clusters such as lighting fixtures, hardware and locks, and smart home appliances. In the past, these industries mainly participated in global trade through OEM private-label production, and companies could only learn about overseas consumer feedback through buyers and distributors.

"Now we work with factories to refine products, adapt them to the usage habits of consumers in target markets, and jointly set up overseas online stores to sell directly to consumers," said Wu Xuhua, supply chain director of Tzit Industrial Group. He noted that the "cross-border e-commerce + industrial clusters" model preserves factories' strengths in supply chains, while making up for deficiencies in cross-border operations.