As the "barometer" and "wind vane" of China's foreign trade, the ongoing Canton Fair continues to introduce new elements. What signals do these "firsts" convey? Reporters recently explored the answers at the Canton Fair exhibition halls.

Multiple companies are participating for the first time, creating new incremental growth in foreign trade. Guangzhou Sanjing Electric Co., Ltd., which is attending the Canton Fair for the first time, has brought multiple products, offering customized industrial automation products and solutions, with a new product rate of one-third. "There are significant opportunities in niche markets and ample space for growth, especially in emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa," said Chen Qiumeng, General Manager of the Industrial Automation Division of the company. "We hope to make good use of the Canton Fair platform to accurately connect with demand and further expand our development space."

The 133rd Canton Fair saw over 10,000 offline exhibitors, with nearly 1,000 new participants. These exhibitors covered traditional advantageous categories such as electronics and energy, as well as new business forms like cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. JD Logistics, making its debut at the fair, received numerous inquiries from merchants. Chen Baojian, Senior Manager of Brand Communication at JD Logistics, introduced that the company operates nearly 1,000 bonded, direct-mail, and overseas warehouses globally, with a total area of nearly 1 million square meters. They aim to leverage the Canton Fair platform to assist Chinese brands in better going global, providing global clients with integrated supply chain solutions and customized services.

These "fresh blood" represent the new force of "Made in China" and are also the mainstay of China's foreign trade. "We focus on the characteristic and advantageous industries within the province, prioritizing exhibition spaces for manufacturing enterprises, supporting emerging companies with potential orders to participate, especially those in high-tech, specialized and innovative, single champion, and other advanced manufacturing and technological innovation industries." Said the head of the Guangdong Trade Mission, adding that the number of new enterprises participating in the trade mission this time exceeded several hundred.

The "new faces" at the Canton Fair also include foreign-invested enterprises that favor the Chinese market. Setting up cross-border e-commerce lectures, offering "one-on-one" consulting services for product selection and logistics solutions... Amazon, the American e-commerce giant, has made full preparations for its first participation. Amazon's booth in the cross-border e-commerce exhibition area of the Canton Fair (taken on a certain date). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei. "The Canton Fair gathers excellent foreign trade manufacturers and brand owners who have a strong desire to go global, and we provide export services, which just meet each other's needs," said Qiu Sheng, Vice President of Amazon China. "We hope to collaborate and innovate with more sellers and service providers, explore newer business models, discover better innovative products, and meet the new demands of different markets."

First-time establishment of a dedicated energy storage zone brings new green momentum. Shared hydrogen bicycles, micro hydrogen production and charging integrated machines, low-pressure solid-state hydrogen storage devices... The booth of Yongan Xing Technology Co., Ltd. is filled with various hydrogen energy products. "Green and clean energy is highly favored by overseas consumers. We hope to allow everyone to experience up close the convenience that hydrogen technology brings to life and to further understand the rich hydrogen energy application scenarios in the market," said a relevant person in charge of the company. The company's hydrogen shared bicycle project has been promoted in many cities across the country, and its hydrogen energy products are exported to Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.

Greening is one of the important trends in the development of international trade. The Canton Fair actively follows this trend, enriches the exhibition themes of green energy, adds a new hydrogen energy theme for the first time in the new energy zone, establishes a new energy storage product zone, and attracts multiple new energy participating enterprises. On the day of the event, overseas buyers negotiated at the solar photovoltaic panel enterprise booths. Photo by reporter Deng Hua, Xinhua News Agency. According to a pre-exhibition survey by the commerce department, .% of the participating enterprises at this Canton Fair have appearance, utility, and invention patents in the field of green and low-carbon, and various enterprises will showcase more than 10,000 green and low-carbon products on site.

At the booth of Shenzhen Huasixu Technology Co., Ltd., the heavy-duty truck start-stop lithium batteries with a lifespan of over a year have caught the attention of many purchasers. Chen Runqiu, Sales Manager of Huasixu, introduced that the company struck its "first pot of gold" by securing foreign trade orders with two types of lithium battery products during its first exhibition. This year, multiple new energy products have been well-received by both new and old customers, with an expected export value reaching one billion yuan, nearly double that of the previous year.

The importance of clean energy and energy conservation and environmental protection is continuously increasing both domestically and internationally. Chinese enterprises are keenly aware of new trends and are innovating to meet these demands. Du Wei, a representative from Guangdong Gaomei Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd., stated, "The company primarily promotes air-source heat pumps, innovating in the directions of energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, high efficiency, and intelligence. These innovations are not only widely applied in traditional areas such as heating, air conditioning, and domestic hot water but are also beginning to expand into energy storage fields."

Virtual Person Makes Debut, Digital Products Shine as New Highlights. "Hello everyone, I am Xiaohui, the digital person of the Canton Fair..." In a promotional video for the Canton Fair, a virtual digital person made its debut, transforming into a digital female anchor to report on forum information, event updates, and other content. According to her introduction, both exhibitors and visitors can use their phones to access the online platform, achieving unified authentication online and offline, one-click product search, and planning procurement itineraries. "I tried using this, and it can perform Chinese-English translation, scan codes to exchange business cards, add negotiation notes, giving us another powerful assistant for offline exhibitions," said an exhibitor from Huangshi, Hubei.

"Dual-line integration" and significantly enhancing the efficiency of online platforms have been the focus of reform for the Canton Fair in recent years. The online platform of this session of the Canton Fair has optimized several functions and introduced a new version of the Canton Fair. Currently, approximately 30,000 enterprises have uploaded around 3 million products, with both the number of enterprises and the number of products increasing by 40% and 48% respectively compared to the previous session, both setting new historical records.

The accelerating digitalization of international trade is not only reflected in the exhibition model of "Digital Canton Fair" but also in the numerous smart products of participating enterprises and their digital manufacturing. Chu Shijia, Director of the China Foreign Trade Centre of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that this session of the Canton Fair showcased tens of thousands of digital smart products, an increase of % compared to the previous session. A batch of humanoid robots, smart devices, and unmanned driving products made their debut for the first time.

Greetings, handshakes, heart gestures, and even dancing and performing Tai Chi... The humanoid robots developed by Shenzhen-based UBTECH Robotics Corp. have attracted countless eyes. According to the company's relevant person in charge, after more than a decade of research and development, the company has developed a variety of products for different scenarios, such as household cleaning robots that are "capable of both the parlor and the kitchen," and "strongman" factory handling robots. These products are currently exported to multiple countries and regions including the United States, Canada, Italy, and France.

Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that through the Canton Fair, one can see that advanced manufacturing not only strengthens the "high quality" of products but also showcases the "intelligent, efficient, and green and low-carbon" processes. It also allows one to sense the accelerated release of new momentum in China's trade.