Shenzhen's imports in the first three quarters rose 70.1% year-on-year, with the AI hardware supply chain driving imports of integrated circuits and computer parts

[[**Shenzhen's imports rose 70.1% year on year in the first three quarters, driven mainly by integrated circuits and computer components in the AI hardware supply chain, showing that it is shifting toward global high-end factor allocation and a supply chain distribution hub.**

**Key points**

**1. Import growth far outpaces export growth, with monthly imports exceeding 300 billion yuan for the first time in September**

In the first three quarters, imports and exports totaled 4.65 trillion yuan, up 38.8% to a new record high; exports rose 18.5%, imports rose 70.1%, and September imports were 323.22 billion yuan, up 103.5%.

**2. AI hardware production materials are the main import driver**

Integrated circuit imports were 959.45 billion yuan, up 62.2%, accounting for more than 40% of imports; computer components were 523.91 billion yuan, up 135%, and the two accounted for 66%.

**3. The full industrial chain and logistics network strengthen Shenzhen's position as a distribution hub**

Design, manufacturing around Shenzhen, port bonded operations and Hong Kong air freight combine to create a siphon effect; bonded logistics rose 62.8% and accounted for 31.2%, as Shenzhen shifts toward a global supply chain distribution center.

**4. Core links still depend on external sources, and domestic substitution is accelerating**

Nearly 1 trillion yuan of integrated circuit imports supports expansion but also exposes external dependence; investment in high-tech industries rose 46.6%, R&D intensity was 6.67%, and semiconductors and other sectors are accelerating efforts to shore up weak links. The high growth rate is affected by the chip cycle and the pace of capacity expansion, and a pullback is inevitable. 2026-10-24 19:11 70.1%, what is Shenzhen buying? Gelong Quick View

This article comes from the WeChat public account: Gelong, author: Duxingxia, original title: "70.1%! What Is Shenzhen Buying?"

Data support | Gogu Data (www.gogudata.com)

Recently, the first-three-quarter foreign trade report card just released by Shenzhen Customs quietly went viral in industry and financial circles.

In the first three quarters, total imports and exports were 4.65 trillion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 38.8%, directly exceeding the full-year level of 2025 and setting a historical high.

Among them, exports were 2.41 trillion yuan, up 18.5% year on year; imports were 2.24 trillion yuan, up 70.1% year on year.

(Monthly statistics chart of imports and exports declared through Shenzhen Customs in 2026, source: Shenzhen Customs official website)

4.65 trillion yuan, this total continues to secure first place among mainland cities and was already within market expectations, but what truly surprised many people was the 70.1% year-on-year growth rate on the import side, almost four times the 18.5% export growth rate.

Among them, September imports were 323.22 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate as high as 103.5%, breaking through 300 billion yuan in a single month for the first time.

Integrated circuits alone saw imports of 959.45 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 62.2% year on year, supporting more than 40% of the city's import volume.

Computer components grew even faster, with imports of 523.91 billion yuan, directly doubling year on year to 135%. The two major categories together accounted for 66% of total import value and contributed more than 60% of the city's foreign trade increment.

The two types of products correspond to the most core upstream supply in the current AI wave, including high-end computing chips, GPUs, memory modules and core server components.

The import data for the entire electromechanical products sector is even more telling.

In the first three quarters, imports of electromechanical products were 1.77 trillion yuan, up 64.3% year on year, accounting for 79% of total imports. This shows that the pull from the consumer side is almost negligible, and growth comes entirely from proactive capacity expansion and stockpiling on the industrial side.

The input of upstream factors on the import side echoes the output of high value-added products on the export side.

In the first three quarters, Shenzhen's exports of high-tech products grew 29.3%, and exports of advantageous products such as 3D printers and digital cameras grew 46.5% in total, accounting for more than 80% of national exports of similar products.

02

In the midstream manufacturing segment, Shenzhen proper, together with the manufacturing belt around Shenzhen in Dongguan and Huizhou, has the world's highest-density electronic manufacturing capacity, from core boards to complete machine assembly, and can quickly complete the entire process from components to finished products.

In the downstream logistics segment, Yantian Port's ocean routes, Qianhai's bonded distribution system, efficient customs clearance at land ports, and Hong Kong's international air cargo network can bring global components together at the lowest cost and highest efficiency, and then radiate them to the national industrial chain.

Goods here can supply local enterprises, be transshipped and distributed through bonded warehouses to inland factories, and also connect with manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia.

In the first three quarters, Shenzhen's bonded logistics imports and exports grew 62.8%, and their share rose to 31.2%, showing that Shenzhen's role is shifting from a customs clearance port to a global supply chain distribution center.

This kind of hub position across the entire chain cannot be built up by a single project or a single policy.

It is the result of step-by-step industrial accumulation over 20 to 30 years, from the early processing with supplied materials that laid the manufacturing foundation, to the rise of local brands that completed industrial chain upgrading, to the clustering of science and technology innovation enterprises that raised R&D density, and after layer upon layer of progression, it was finally released in concentrated form in this round of the AI cycle.

03

Nearly 1 trillion yuan in integrated circuit imports is direct proof of industrial prosperity and also intuitively reflects external dependence in core links.

Industrial upgrading itself is a gradual process. Only by first deeply participating in the global high-end industrial chain, using the most advanced components, and making competitive end products can there be a foundation for subsequent substitution and independence.

Shenzhen is currently in this transitional stage.

Large-scale imports of high-end chips support industrial expansion and enjoy the efficiency dividend of the global division of labor, while the local semiconductor industrial chain is also accelerating its climb, with design, manufacturing and packaging and testing all shoring up weak links.

In the first three quarters, investment in Shenzhen's high-tech industries grew by 46.6%, and investment in industrial technological upgrading grew by 20.2%, with a considerable portion of these funds going to fields of independent controllability such as semiconductors and high-end equipment.

Industrial development has its own objective laws. Moving from usable to good to use, and from partial substitution to full-chain independence, takes time, as well as sustained R&D investment and market validation.

Shenzhen's R&D investment intensity has already risen to 6.67%, and its PCT international patent applications have ranked first in the country for 22 consecutive years.

The shortcomings in basic research and the gap in high-end manufacturing processes are hard to fully close within three to five years, but Shenzhen has already demonstrated a sufficiently strong pace of catching up.

The high import value also corresponds to enormous room for domestic substitution.

In the future, as local supply capacity gradually improves, the import structure will slowly shift from being dominated by high-end chips to being dominated by high-end equipment and specialty materials, and the overall quality of foreign trade will rise to another level.

Looking at a longer time horizon, this round of changes in the import structure marks that the underlying logic of Shenzhen's foreign trade has already switched.

In the early years, Shenzhen's foreign trade followed the typical "two ends outside" model: importing raw materials and components, exporting after assembly, and earning processing fees, with imports entirely serving exports. The city played more of a processing workshop role in the global industrial chain.

Today, Shenzhen's import functions are much more diversified. Some support local high-end manufacturing and R&D, some handle regional distribution and transshipment for the Asia-Pacific, and some serve capacity upgrading across the national industrial chain.

Shenzhen's role has shifted from a node that passively takes on global industrial transfer to a dispatch center that actively allocates global high-end factors.

The long-term value of this role change is far higher than short-term growth figures.

Shenzhen's position in the global value chain has shifted from the manufacturing end, which takes orders by relying on cost advantages, to the hub end, which allocates resources by relying on industrial agglomeration capacity, and the city's risk resistance and industrial bargaining power will both rise to another level accordingly.

Of course, a high growth rate of 70% cannot be sustained over the long term. Chip price cycles and the pace of industrial capacity expansion will both affect subsequent import data, and a gradual decline in the growth rate is inevitable.

This status is not built up through propaganda or meetings; it has been accumulated bit by bit by countless factories, enterprises and logistics routes.

True say in the industrial chain must be held in one's own hands.

Shenzhen's successful experience in how to quickly and effectively transform the industrial, talent and technology flows brought by its import hub into a stock of independent innovation provides a very good example for other cities to learn from. (End of full text) Channel: Finance and Economics. This content comes from the internet and the original link; the views represent only the author and do not represent the position of Huxiu. If there is any copyright issue, 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 [ ]