By 2025, the robots for the Spring Festival Gala will only be able to turn handkerchiefs, and by 2026, the robots will be able to sing and interact, achieving a leap in performance. In just one year, a large number of Chinese industrial, clean, and intelligent bionic robots have been sold overseas. The impressive export achievements come not only from the independent technological research and development of enterprises, but also from the assistance and support of customs in various regions, helping China's intelligent manufacturing to go global. In the first half of 2026, many domestic robot exports have delivered impressive results, and the industry is full of vitality. China's industrial robot exports reached 6.29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%; The export of clean and intelligent bionic robots amounted to 18.09 billion yuan.

Multi category export, multi-point flowering

In terms of industrial robot export, in 2026, Dongguan's industrial robot export will exceed 200 million yuan, and its export to Thailand, Türkiye, Mexico and other emerging markets will grow significantly. Its products cover welding, handling and assembly robots. In the first half of the year, Suzhou's industrial robot exports exceeded 700 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27%. In terms of clean robot exports, Shanghai Port exported 7.25 billion yuan worth of clean robots in the first half of the year, accounting for 71% of the total export value of port robots; The export of cleaning robots from Shenzhen reached 6.025 billion yuan. In terms of the export of intelligent bionic robots, the export value of Wuhu bionic robots in the first half of the year was 16.99 million yuan; Beijing exports 138 bionic robots with a value of 12.379 million yuan.

Segmented tracks showcase their respective strengths

Industrial robots solidify the foundation of the industry. One out of every three Dongguan palletizing collaborative robots is produced locally, and the enterprise develops its own operating system to reduce the threshold for equipment use. Local enterprises are expected to ship 8000-10000 palletizing robots throughout the year, an increase of 60% compared to 2025. Overseas orders account for 20% and are sold to more than 50 countries. Suzhou enterprises are deeply engaged in the research and development of algorithms and perception systems, expanding their products from photovoltaics to semiconductors and high-end manufacturing fields. Robots are exported to Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.

Cleaning robots drive foreign trade growth. Shanghai promotes the addition of exclusive customs tax numbers for cleaning robots, optimizes customs clearance processes, and resolves overseas compliance risks for enterprises. The cleaning robots of Shenzhen enterprises are equipped with navigation and AI algorithms, selling well in more than 170 countries. They rely on the certificate of origin of free trade agreements, enjoy tariff reductions, enhance overseas competitiveness, and significantly increase the number of certificate applications.

Biomimetic robots compete in the forefront market. Wuhu enterprises are creating diverse products of humanoid and quadruped robotic dogs, which can support multiple languages and be deployed in overseas commercial service scenarios, with bulk exports to Spain. Beijing Customs provides policy guidance on-site to assist science and technology innovation enterprises in expanding their overseas markets with quadruped inspection robots. Wujiang humanoid robot enterprises rely on the local industrial chain to achieve mass production, and customs visit to promote favorable policies for enterprises, helping their development. Keywords: robots, overseas exports, Chinese intelligent manufacturing

Customs empowers intelligent manufacturing to go global

Customs across the country continue to respond to the demands of enterprises, establish precise assistance mechanisms for the export of high-end equipment such as robots, guide enterprises to declare in a standardized manner, clarify regulatory requirements, and safeguard the export of domestically produced high-end manufacturing equipment.Editor/Gong Ziwei