On April 24, the Information Office of Liaoning Provincial People’s Government held the 16th press conference of the series titled “New Breakthroughs for Revitalization, and Striving for Decisive Achievements”, reporting on the foreign trade data, major achievements, and distinctive highlights of Liaoning in the first quarter of 2025.
In the first quarter of this year, the province’s total import and export value of goods trade reached 184.8 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. Exports amounted to 95.11 billion yuan, up 10.5% year-on-year; imports totaled 89.69 billion yuan, down 4.8% year-on-year, yielding a trade surplus of 5.42 billion yuan. In the first quarter, the province’s growth rates for total import and export, export, and import exceeded the national averages by 1.2, 3.6, and 1.2 percentage points, respectively. Exports achieved double-digit growth, reaching a record high for the same period in history.
The European Union was Liaoning’s largest trading partner in the first quarter, with import and export value totaling 25.12 billion yuan, accounting for 13.6% of the province’s total. Trade with Japan and China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) increased by 2.5% and 25.2%, respectively. Trade with Belt and Road Initiative partner countries reached 102.65 billion yuan, a growth of 5.9%. Specifically, imports and exports to ASEAN reached 24.26 billion yuan, up 19.7%, and to Saudi Arabia 12.6 billion yuan, up 17.9%.
Moving forward, Liaoning will continue to strengthen efforts in supporting the construction of the Northeast Land-Sea Corridor, advancing port optimization and upgrades, and enhancing the capacity of open platforms. The province will promote the high-quality development of the China Railway Express (Shenyang) Hub, expand international passenger and cargo routes as well as TIR operations, and leverage the combined advantages of comprehensive bonded zones and free trade zone as “dual zones”, in order to foster new foreign trade models such as cross-border e-commerce and the “bonded +” initiative.
