On November 25, at the Wuhu Port International Container Terminal, over 300 Chery automobiles slowly drove into shipping containers under the supervision of customs officers, ready to be dispatched to overseas markets. Behind this routine operational scene lies a historic breakthrough: according to statistics from Hefei Customs, Anhui Province's annual automobile exports have exceeded the one-million-unit mark for the first time.

From exporting 729,200 vehicles in 2023, to 954,000 vehicles in 2024, and further to 938,000 vehicles in the first ten months of 2025, the figure has now reached one million... 

Behind the accelerated growth in export volume lies the overall enhancement of Anhui's automotive industry strength.

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the province's annual production of automobiles and new energy vehicles has increased by 2 times and 15 times respectively. In the first three quarters of this year, Anhui ranked first nationally in automobile production, new energy vehicle production, and automobile exports. The province has now gathered seven complete vehicle enterprises—Chery Group, NIO, Volkswagen Anhui, BYD Hefei, JAC Group, Changan Hefei, and CAMC—forming a product matrix that covers passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and specialized vehicles, and establishing a development pattern of "leading enterprises—industrial chain—industrial cluster."

The automotive industry has become Anhui's first industry with export value exceeding one hundred billion yuan. Data shows that Anhui has continuously advanced the open development of its automotive industry at a high level. The export value of automobiles and auto parts in the province has grown from 14.4 billion yuan in 2020 to 125.9 billion yuan in 2024, with its share of the province's total exports increasing from 5.1% to 21.7%. Currently, nearly a thousand enterprises in the automotive industry chain have engaged in import and export activities, including 20 enterprises with exports each exceeding 100 million USD. The automotive industry has undoubtedly become the "ballast stone" of Anhui's foreign trade.

The rapid growth of automobile exports stems not only from the "hard support" of the industry but also relies on the "soft environment" of services.

It is reported that Anhui has been deeply implementing the "Anhui Going Global" initiative, guiding enterprises to adapt to market demand changes and trade policy adjustments in key regions, while flexibly expanding into markets such as Russia, the EU, the Middle East, and Latin America. Multiple thematic exhibitions for Anhui's automobile and auto parts industry have been organized through international professional automotive exhibitions. Concurrently, the province is accelerating the construction of 4 national-level and 3 provincial-level foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases for automobiles and auto parts, promoting the export-oriented development of regional industrial clusters. Support has been provided for expanding open channels, including the local construction of three 7,000-vehicle-capacity roll-on/roll-off ships, boosting the province's ocean shipping capacity for automobiles to over 200,000 units.

"We continue to implement 12 measures supporting 'Rapid Expansion of Anhui-made Vehicles' and 20 initiatives supporting the construction of the new energy vehicle industrial cluster," stated a relevant official from Hefei Customs. "We are actively expanding the supply of technical trade information and guiding enterprises to fully benefit from rules of origin policies." "Meanwhile, by leveraging smart customs initiatives, we are enhancing the intelligence level of water transport logistics support systems. The 'direct port entry' model has been implemented at Wuhu Port, while the 'railway express clearance' model has been comprehensively applied to China-Europe freight train services, further smoothing logistics channels and reducing customs clearance time and logistics costs for enterprises." The official emphasized that customs will continue to improve cross-border trade facilitation, enhance port opening capacity, and strive to create a more efficient and high-quality customs clearance environment. These efforts will further accelerate the export of Anhui-manufactured vehicles and contribute new momentum to Anhui's high-level opening-up and high-quality development.

Source: Anhui Daily