Hubei Province's total foreign trade reached 266.97 billion yuan in the first four months of the year, up 2.8 percent year on year, according to customs data released on May 18, 2026.

In the first four months, Wuhan led the province with 159.63 billion yuan in imports and exports, up 15.5 percent. It accounted for nearly 60 percent of Hubei's total foreign trade and contributed 8.2 percentage points to the province's overall growth. Huangshi and Yichang followed with 26.46 billion yuan and 12.42 billion yuan, respectively.

Hubei's exports of AI-related products surged amid growing global demand for computing power. Exports of integrated circuit expanded 269.6 percent to 25.25 billion yuan. Meanwhile, exports of central processing units and storage units rose 37.1 percent and 146.8 percent, respectively.

As a major automobile manufacturing hub, Hubei saw exports of auto industry hit 16.33 billion yuan during the same period, up 62.5 percent. A total of 85,000 vehicles were exported, an increase of 80 percent, with value reaching 10.58 billion yuan, up 86.5 percent.

Private enterprises remained the main driver of Hubei's foreign trade in the four months, accounting for 61.6 percent of the total. The number of foreign trade enterprises with actual performance rose by more than 1,000 compared to the same period last year.

The official data also showed that Hubei continued to strengthen ties with traditional markets. In the first four months of the year, trade with the European Union posed 43.04 billion yuan, up 33.4 percent, while trade with the UK stood at 3.39 billion yuan, up 6.7 percent. Exports to Hong Kong surged 141.3 percent to 27.86 billion yuan. 

Editor: Zhilan Hu