Qingdao, China's third-largest northern city, has long pursued its automotive manufacturing ambitions. In the new energy vehicle era, the city is now earning another crown related to the automotive industry chain.

Recently, Qingdao Port released its latest operational data showing that from January to July, the port's commercial vehicle exports increased 23% year-on-year, with new energy vehicle exports soaring 1617% compared to the same period last year.

Against the backdrop of accelerated overseas expansion by domestic new energy vehicles and global automotive industry restructuring, Qingdao has emerged as a critical node in China's automotive globalization strategy. The rise of this new global supply chain hub is generating significant impacts on the regional economic landscape of both Qingdao and Shandong Province, strongly supporting Shandong's industrial exports toward trillion-yuan scale.

**Accelerating Automotive Exports and Industrial Integration Through New Channels**

According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers data, in the first half of 2025, China's automotive exports maintained overall growth momentum. While traditional fuel vehicle exports declined, new energy vehicle cumulative exports reached 1.06 million units, up 84.6% year-on-year, becoming a crucial growth driver for foreign trade development.

Leading automakers like Chery and BYD contributed significantly, with Chery exporting 548,000 units and BYD reaching 472,000 units. Companies including Chery, BYD, FAW, and CATL have all established strategic layouts in Qingdao, a first-tier global port city, achieving seamless integration of "port-factory-overseas warehouse" operations.

According to public reports, new energy vehicles produced at Chery's Qingdao facility can be loaded onto ships just eight hours after rolling off the production line. On February 26 this year, over 3,000 BYD domestic new energy vehicles were exported from Qingdao Port to Mexico, valued at over 300 million yuan, marking the largest single new energy vehicle export from Qingdao Port this year.

Last year, BYD achieved breakthroughs in Uruguay and South African markets, exporting pure electric buses to both countries. In September last year, BYD's Qingdao factory delivered 100 pure electric buses to CUTCSA, Uruguay's largest electric bus operator.

Amid the wave of Chinese automakers accelerating overseas expansion, Qingdao is rapidly building an international automotive ro-ro transshipment center. Through multimodal transportation combining "railway trunk lines + road short-haul + maritime shipping," logistics costs are reduced. This has made Huangdao Station, located adjacent to Qingdao Port's Qianwan Port Area and responsible for port cargo transportation, one of the nation's busiest port-adjacent freight stations, with trains arriving and departing approximately every 10 minutes.

These automobiles arriving by special trains are then exported through Qingdao Port, with the new hub demonstrating powerful regional industrial integration capabilities.

Huangdao Station began handling new energy vehicle transportation in October 2023, exporting 42,000 new energy vehicles in 2024, becoming Shandong Province's largest sea-rail intermodal new energy vehicle export station. Export brands mainly include BYD and SAIC MG, with orders from Germany, France, UK, Belgium, and Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and UAE.

From vehicle production to container loading at the port ready for shipping, the fastest turnaround time is just three days. Qingdao Port operates 52 inland ports along the Yellow River, and after opening the Yellow River Basin land-sea corridor, Qingdao has become the preferred choice for automotive exports from Yellow River Basin cities like Xi'an and Zhengzhou.

This "land-sea coordination, sea-rail direct transport" model can reduce domestic transportation costs by 20%. In 2023, new energy vehicles produced at BYD's Xi'an factory and SAIC's Zhengzhou base were exported overseas through Qingdao Port.

In June 2024, construction began on Chery's KD (Knocked Down) component production workshop in Qingdao's Jimo district, capable of producing 100,000 KD components. Automotive KD export involves automakers exporting their vehicle components overseas for local assembly and sales, reducing transportation costs compared to complete vehicle exports while enjoying tariff advantages.

Automotive KD export represents a new trend in automaker overseas expansion, with major Chinese automakers building KD factories nationwide to strengthen global competitiveness. Chery established a KD export base in Kaifeng Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Henan, and plans to build a new automotive KD component export industrial park in Anqing, Anhui. Additionally, Great Wall and Geely have also deployed KD factories across multiple countries globally.

Under this trend, Qingdao Port has expanded automotive KD export cooperation with cities like Xi'an and Zhengzhou. On June 24 this year, 50 containers loaded with BYD automotive components departed from Xi'an International Port Station for Shandong Port Logistics Group's sea-rail intermodal center, with these goods further exported to African countries including Egypt and Tunisia.

The acceleration of Chinese automotive exports continues to set new records at Qingdao Port. Latest data shows that from January to July this year, Qingdao Port's commercial vehicle exports increased 23% year-on-year, with new energy vehicles up 1617% and construction vehicle exports up 35%.

In the first half of this year, Qingdao Port exported new energy commercial vehicles valued at 696 million yuan, up 85.5% year-on-year. The port has established four ro-ro shipping routes covering emerging markets including East Africa, Central and North America, and Russia, with annual handling capacity expected to exceed 600,000 vehicles.

In the first half of the year, Qingdao Port's various commercial vehicle shipments increased 40% year-on-year, with export regions covering key markets in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Africa.

On April 11 this year, over 2,500 domestic new energy sedans departed Qingdao Port aboard the "Mediterranean Tirana Express" ro-ro vessel bound for Central America, marking the inaugural voyage of a ro-ro operation route jointly opened by Qingdao Port and CMA CGM.

As a connection point between China-Europe Railway Express and maritime shipping, Qingdao Port compresses the transportation cycle of new energy vehicles from production bases to European markets to 18 days through sea-rail intermodal transport, saving 12 days compared to traditional maritime shipping.

For customs clearance efficiency, a "one ship, one policy" approach is implemented. From January to May 2025, the average customs clearance time for new energy vehicle exports at Qingdao Port was only 2.3 hours, 67% shorter than 2024, with single-ship operation efficiency improved by 50%.

**Shandong Supply Chain Accelerates Integration into ASEAN**

In 2025, Qingdao Port opened new break-bulk cargo routes to North Africa, India-Pakistan, Central and North America, Southeast Asia, and Brazil. Besides commercial vehicles, construction equipment including dump trucks, excavators, self-loading trucks, aerial work platforms, and new energy equipment continue flowing overseas through Qingdao Port.

Among these, COSCO SHIPPING Specialized Carriers' Southeast Africa direct express service showed rapid volume growth, with first-half throughput surging 30-fold compared to the same period last year.

Indonesia, ASEAN's largest economy, has become a hotspot for Chinese automakers' overseas factory construction. Currently, XPeng and SAIC have both built factories in Indonesia, with SAIC's Indonesia factory Phase II project targeting 300,000 units annual capacity by 2026. BYD and Changan's electric vehicle factories in Thailand's Rayong province began production last year and this year respectively.

Chinese automakers "plugging into" emerging markets like Indonesia signals a long chain of Chinese suppliers to follow. Construction machinery manufacturing is a traditional advantageous industry for Shandong.

Shandong's foreign trade export data for the first half of the year further confirms this trend. Qingdao Customs data shows that from January to July 2025, among Shandong Province's top 20 export commodities, electromechanical products ranked first with a value of 599.03 billion yuan, up 10.7% year-on-year.

By import-export countries, Indonesia showed the highest growth, with exports up 47.7% and imports up 72.7% year-on-year.

In the first half of this year, Shandong's industrial product export focus is accelerating toward upstream value chains, with industrial intermediate goods exports reaching 498.02 billion yuan, up 5.9%, setting a new historical high for the same period.

Leveraging its comprehensive industrial system, Shandong's spillover effects to ASEAN countries are significant, with ASEAN maintaining its position as Shandong's largest export market for three consecutive years.

Southeast Asian countries serve as forward positions for Shandong enterprises establishing factories in Southeast Asia. As these countries continue industrialization, intermediate products manufactured in Shandong are continuously flowing into their industrialization supply chains, entering the international economic circulation system.

In the first half of the year, among RCEP member countries, Shandong's import-export growth with Indonesia and Cambodia was notably high, increasing 52.5% and 35.2% respectively. Trade with Poland, the largest market in Central and Eastern Europe, reached 12.23 billion yuan, surging 34.2%.

With the establishment of this new grand circulation economic system, Shandong's import-export advantages with ASEAN continue expanding. In the first half of this year, Shandong Province's import-export, export, and import scales all reached historical highs for the same period, with import-export growth ranking first among the top six foreign trade provinces and cities, contributing nearly 20% of national incremental growth.

Industrial product exports reached 1.04 trillion yuan, up 6.1%, ranking fourth nationally. Within this spillover effect, Shandong's domestic brand product exports reached 270.65 billion yuan, up 11.6%, accounting for over one-quarter of the province's total export value.

In the first half of this year, Shandong's private enterprises exported intermediate goods worth 394.33 billion yuan, up 8.7%, with steel, plastics, aluminum, glass, hardware, textiles, and other intermediate goods maintaining rapid export growth.

Shandong's private enterprises are radiating the province's industrial chain advantages overseas through intermediate goods trade, becoming the main force in the new wave of overseas expansion. Data shows that 85.1% of Shandong's foreign trade increment in the first half was contributed by private enterprises.

From January to July 2025, Shandong private enterprises' import-export reached 1.55 trillion yuan, up 8.5% year-on-year, with exports of 970 billion yuan, up 7.2%, significantly higher than the provincial average.

From January to July 2025, Qingdao-based Teld's intelligent manufacturing and integration business export declaration amount exceeded 500 million yuan, up approximately 770% year-on-year, with orders scheduled through the first quarter of next year.

**New Identity, New Positioning, New Opportunities**

These latest foreign trade export data demonstrate the surging momentum of Qingdao Port as the most convenient sea outlet for the Yellow River Basin export corridor. Looking ahead, new energy vehicles will undoubtedly contribute the strongest growth momentum.

At the 2025 Global New Energy Vehicle Cooperation and Development (Shanghai) Forum, Sun Xiaohong, Secretary-General of the Automotive Internationalization Professional Committee of China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Machinery & Electronic Products, stated that with a 10% growth rate projection, this year's automotive exports could reach 7 million units, with hopes of approaching 10 million units by 2030 (including overseas production).

For components (excluding power batteries), exports growing at 5% annually could easily achieve $120 billion in export scale by 2030.

Currently, Qingdao has become one of China's most rapidly developing cities in bonded zone economics, with "bonded zone economy" becoming an important engine driving Qingdao's foreign trade and industrial transformation.

From January to July 2025, Qingdao's five comprehensive bonded zones achieved combined import-export value of 88.66 billion yuan, up 12.3% year-on-year, accounting for 16.9% of Qingdao's total import-export value during the same period.

The "Qingdao New Energy Vehicle Industry High-Quality Development Action Plan (2024-2025)" released in May 2024 shows Qingdao plans to build a nationally important new energy commercial vehicle industrial base and export-driven new energy vehicle industry highland, with the city introducing a series of specialized subsidies and support policies.

This new energy vehicle export wave, driven jointly by technological breakthroughs, policy support, and logistics innovation, is reshaping the global automotive industry landscape, with Qingdao Port racing toward becoming a core hub in the global new energy vehicle supply chain.

Facing this historic opportunity, the clustering effect of upstream and downstream enterprises in the new energy vehicle industry chain brought by Qingdao Port as a core global supply chain hub is emerging in Shandong.

Meanwhile, the soaring new energy vehicle exports are driving growth in demand for high-skilled positions in port operations, logistics management, international trade, testing and certification, attracting talent flow to the Jiaodong Economic Circle.

Both Qingdao and Shandong will gain new growth opportunities in the face of this historic opportunity.