AI computing power widens gap among top 20 foreign trade cities: Suzhou pulls nearly 300 billion yuan ahead of Beijing, Nanjing drops out as Wuhan takes its place

[[**In the first three quarters, AI computing power accelerated divergence among the top 20 foreign trade cities: Suzhou held firm at third and led Beijing by nearly 300 billion yuan, Nanjing dropped out and Wuhan took its place, while high-growth cities such as Xi'an led the pack.**

**Key points**

**1. The top four remain unchanged, and Suzhou widens its lead over Beijing**

In the first three quarters, the imports and exports of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing were 4.65 trillion, 3.94 trillion, 3.07 trillion and 2.78 trillion yuan respectively, together accounting for about 36.2% of the national total; Suzhou's lead over Beijing widened from 41.5 billion yuan in the first half to 291.6 billion yuan.

**2. AI computing power capital expenditure drives up imports, and imports grow faster than exports in many cities**

Suzhou's imports rose 68.2% and exports rose 42.1%, while Shenzhen's imports rose 70.1% and exports rose 18.5%; the high import growth mainly serves stockpiling of intermediate goods for AI hardware and capacity expansion.

**3. Xi'an and Hefei enter the export harvest period**

Xi'an's growth rate reached 115.5%, with exports up 142.1% and imports up 54.7%, driven by the release of semiconductor capacity; Hefei's exports rose 62% and imports rose 10.1%, relying on new energy vehicles, photovoltaics and lithium batteries going overseas.

**4. Nanjing drops out and Wuhan takes its place, and divergence among the top 20 intensifies**

Nanjing's imports and exports fell 1.6% and exports fell 3.1%, leaving it 4.27 billion yuan behind Yantai and dropping to 21st, but it had already overtaken Yantai in the third quarter alone; nationally the growth rate was 18.8%, and only 8 of the top 20 cities outperformed it, while Tianjin held 16th with negative growth. 2026-10-22 16:17 AI widens the gap among the top 20 foreign trade cities: Nanjing drops out and Wuhan takes its place, Suzhou pulls nearly 300 billion yuan ahead of Beijing — Ta Kung Pao Quick Overview

This article is from the WeChat public account: Ta Kung Pao, editor: Pan Zhanhong, author: Wang Chenyuan

In three months, the contest among the top 20 foreign trade cities shifted from "who rises and who falls" to "widening the gap."

The General Administration of Customs recently released import and export data for the first three quarters, and the ranking of the top 20 foreign trade cities was updated accordingly. Unlike the major reshuffle in the first two quarters, in the third quarter only Nanjing was pushed out of the top 20, replaced by Wuhan.

The top four pattern has not changed. In the first three quarters, the imports and exports of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing reached 4.65 trillion yuan, 3.94 trillion yuan, 3.07 trillion yuan and 2.78 trillion yuan respectively, with the four cities together exceeding 14 trillion yuan, accounting for about 36.2% of the national total import and export value.

The rankings are unchanged; what has changed is the "gap." Suzhou's lead over Beijing widened from 41.5 billion yuan in the first half to 291.6 billion yuan in the first three quarters, close to 300 billion yuan.

Moreover, Xi'an, a dark horse that burst onto the list in the first half, saw its growth rate further surge to 115.5% in the first three quarters.

What drove these changes?

Zeng Gang, dean of the Urban Development Research Institute at East China Normal University, gave AI as the key word in an interview with a Ta Kung Pao reporter. He believes that the high import growth in the first three quarters was essentially capital expenditure and a stockpiling cycle driven by AI computing power infrastructure. In the new top 20 list, cities such as Suzhou and Xi'an that have caught the AI industrial chain are accelerating ahead.

△Chart by Ta Kung Pao reporter. Data source: General Administration of Customs

Outpacing Beijing, Suzhou's "stockpiling" logic

The contest for third place seems to have been settled. In the third quarter alone, Suzhou's lead over Beijing widened by about 250.1 billion yuan. What is Suzhou relying on to hold third place?

According to Suzhou Customs data, in the first three quarters of this year, Suzhou's foreign trade imports and exports totaled 3.07 trillion yuan, up 51.9% from the same period last year, 33.1 percentage points and 22 percentage points higher than the national and provincial foreign trade growth rates respectively.

A Ta Kung Pao reporter found that Suzhou shares a common feature with several fast-growing cities in this round: imports are growing faster than exports.

Suzhou's imports grew 68.2% and exports grew 42.1%, with imports 26.1 percentage points faster than exports; Shenzhen is even more typical, with imports up 70.1% while exports grew only 18.5%, a scissors gap of more than 50 percentage points; the situation in Zhengzhou and Wuhan is the same.

Zeng Gang told a Ta Kung Pao reporter that the phenomenon of "imports growing faster than exports" in this round of strong foreign trade cities is not an accidental short-term fluctuation, but concentratedly reflects that China's advanced manufacturing is in a superimposed stage of a "capital expenditure expansion period" centered on AI computing power and a "deepening period of processing trade."

Shenzhen ranks first nationwide in the import and export scale of AI-related components such as integrated circuits, contributing more than 60% of the city's foreign trade increment. The high import growth is largely to meet the stockpiling demand for intermediate goods for the production of computing hardware such as AI hardware (e.g., servers).

Suzhou's imports of mechanical and electrical products grew by as much as 92.5%, among which exports of computer, communications and electronic equipment manufacturing, which is highly related to AI, grew by 88%. The imported advanced equipment and components directly serve the capacity expansion and export production of AI-related products.

In the first three quarters of this year, Suzhou's foreign trade crossed the 3 trillion yuan threshold for the first time, exceeding last year's full-year scale.

Exports deliver, Xi'an and Hefei enter the "harvest period"

Nationally, imports and exports grew 18.8% year on year in the first three quarters. But within the top 20, only 8 cities truly outperformed the overall market.

Shenzhen, Suzhou, Wuxi, Xi'an, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Hefei and Wuhan grew by more than 18.8%, with Xi'an's growth rate reaching as high as 115.5%.

A Ta Kung Pao reporter found that Xi'an's exports surged 142.1% and imports grew 54.7%, while Hefei's exports grew 62.0% and imports grew only 10.1%; the export growth rates of both cities were significantly higher than import growth.

Zeng Gang pointed out that cities such as Shenzhen, Suzhou, Zhengzhou and Wuhan are in a period of capital expenditure expansion, and that large volumes of imports are the "fuel" and "seeds" for future growth; imports growing faster than exports is a normal feature of this stage. Xi'an and Hefei, by contrast, have been the first to enter the capacity harvest period in some tracks, and their export surge is the cashing in of earlier investment. Together, the two constitute a complete picture of China's current foreign trade amid the wave of industrial structure upgrading.

Xi'an's export surge is almost entirely driven by the release of local semiconductor capacity, marking Xi'an's memory chip capacity entering a period of concentrated delivery.

According to Guanzhong Customs statistics, in the first half of this year, the total import and export value of Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd. reached 230.79 billion yuan, up 224.1% year on year, accounting for more than half of Xi'an's total import and export value and placing it in the leading position in Xi'an's foreign trade.

It is worth noting that Zeng Gang also pointed out that both the volume and growth rate of Xi'an's exports far exceed those of imports, indicating that local chip manufacturing lines are operating at full capacity and delivering to the world, rather than simply importing equipment for capacity expansion.

The logic in another city, Hefei, is similar, except that the industrial vehicle has been replaced by the large-scale overseas expansion of the "new three" — new energy vehicles, photovoltaics and lithium batteries.

Zeng Gang said that Hefei's export growth is driven by physical products rolling off local factory lines, rather than re-exports or simple fluctuations in trade figures.

After Nanjing, who is most at risk?

In the first three quarters, 12 of the top 20 cities grew slower than the national level, exactly the same number as the "12 cities below average" in the first half.

It is worth noting that in the first half of this year, Nanjing was already the only city among the top 20 to record negative growth. Falling off the list three months later is hardly a surprise.

Among the current top 20, Tianjin is also in negative growth.

Tianjin's imports and exports fell 0.5% year on year in the first three quarters, with imports down 7.3%, but it held on to 16th place thanks to positive export growth of 5.7%.

Nanjing was the one that fell behind. In the first three quarters, Nanjing's imports and exports fell 1.6% year on year, with exports down 3.1%, ultimately trailing 20th-placed Yantai by 4.27 billion yuan and dropping to 21st place.

However, the suspense remains: Nanjing's imports and exports in the third quarter alone reached 142.8 billion yuan, more than 4 billion yuan more than 20th-placed Yantai.

In other words, Nanjing lost out on what it had accumulated in the first half; in the third quarter alone its volume had already overtaken Yantai. So the battle for 20th place in the fourth quarter is far from over.

Zeng Gang said that regional divergence in export growth in the fourth quarter will revolve around the stage of the industrial cycle. Import-driven and export-driven are not mutually exclusive; the emphasis will vary from city to city.

The foreign trade growth picture in the fourth quarter is not a simple question of "imports or exports," but of who is in a better position to convert imports into output. Channel: Finance and Economics. This content comes from the internet, original link; the views represent only the author and do not represent the position of Huxiu. For copyright issues, please contact hezuo@huxiu.com, and we will verify and handle it promptly. Everyone who is changing the world and wants to change the world is on the Huxiu APP[]