Transformers and robot export orders are booming! China's manufacturing competitiveness overseas continues to be prominently demonstrated.

Customs’ latest released data: In the first two months of this year, China’s export value was US$656.58 billion, up 21.8% year over year. Among them, electromechanical products such as transformers and robots have been especially impressive—exports reached US$410.91 billion, setting a new record for the same period across all years, up 27.1%.

Behind the high growth in exports of electromechanical products, what “hardcore” strengths are at play?

在 Changzhou, Jiangsu, a transformer manufacturing company, this transformer that is ready to be shipped to Brazil is about to complete a crucial step before leaving the factory—temperature-rise testing.

The customer from Brazil has ordered a total of 5 transformers; currently, the company can only deliver 3 units. The remaining orders need to be completed and delivered by June. Since last year, the team handling the company’s international business has kicked off a “global flight mode.”

In 2025, the total value of export orders for China’s transformer companies reached a record high of RMB 64.6 billion, up nearly 36% from the previous year. A major reason is the massive electricity demand spurred by the development of artificial intelligence.

At present, the power load of an ultra-large-scale AI data center has exceeded 1 gigawatt (1GW), equivalent to the peak summer power demand load of a mid-sized city. In addition, some countries and regions’ transformer equipment has reached the time for renewal and replacement, and the combined effect has driven a booming demand for transformers overseas.

The transformers produced by this company are sold to more than 60 countries and regions worldwide. In 2026, as of now, foreign trade orders are up 20% year over year.

Changzhou, Jiangsu, is known as the “World Capital of Transformers.” In the first two months of 2026, the city’s transformer export value exceeded RMB 650 million, up more than 70% year over year. Order growth is helping speed up the entire industrial chain; production capacity at supporting enterprises such as transformer cooling fins and silicon steel sheets has been pushed to the limit.

China has already built the world’s most complete transformer manufacturing system, with production capacity accounting for about 60% of the global total. Comprehensive advantages have been formed in raw materials, costs, production cycle times, and more.

The AI wave is sweeping the globe. It cannot happen without compute power, and compute power relies on a steady, uninterrupted supply of electricity. China’s transformer companies, by leveraging a rapidly responsive industrial chain, innovation that fits precisely, and solid capabilities honed through repeated application in many domestic scenarios, have won a steady stream of large international orders.

As the world’s largest robot producer, in 2025 China’s industrial robot exports grew 48.7% year over year. Service robots, elder-care robots, underwater robots, and more have flourished across multiple segments.

In a science and technology park in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, this company focuses on developing all kinds of service robots. In addition to cleaning robots, there are multiple categories such as delivery robots and customer-introduction robots. Working across more than 80 countries and regions worldwide, by the end of 2025 its cumulative shipment volume reached 120,000 units.

Engineers are attaching wheels to all four paws of the quadruped robot dog, aiming to help it move faster and more stably over complex terrains such as sandy ground and ravines. This quadruped robot dog is made up of more than 30,000 components, and it continues to iterate and upgrade; this year it is expected to ship nearly 10,000 units.

At present, Shenzhen’s robot industry cluster has more than 74,000 enterprises. The total industrial chain output value exceeds RMB 200 billion, about half of the components can be assembled within 10 kilometers, and 80% of components have suppliers that can be found within a radius of 40 kilometers.

Shenzhen has proposed accelerating the construction of a global artificial intelligence pioneer city, aiming for an increase in value of the artificial intelligence industrial cluster of more than 10% in 2026.

According to customs statistics: In the first two months of this year, the total value of China’s goods trade import and export was RMB 7.73 trillion, up 18.3% year over year. Foreign trade achieved a strong start.

This wave of “Made in China” going overseas makes it even clearer that reliability, value for money, and innovativeness are the hard skills that enable Chinese companies to go out and fight through storms and waves. We look forward to more Chinese intelligence and Chinese creation being tempered into even tougher real capabilities and more outstanding high-quality achievements in the tide of going overseas, so that “Made in China” and “Made by China” shine brightly on the world’s industrial stage.

(Source: CCTV Finance and Economics)