Thanks to the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, trade and economic cooperation between central China and Southeast Asia is growing rapidly.
China’s New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (New ILSTC) is an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), linking the western inland regions with global sea routes and—hopefully—enhancing connectivity with ASEAN countries.
Last year was a great year for New ILSTC. And the momentum is expected to continue in 2026.
Marine rail services are handling 1.425 million TEU cargoes by 2025. That was up 47.6% year-on-year and exceeded 1 million tons for the first time with about 1,300 to 1,316 categories shipped, including electronics, cars, auto parts, and machinery. The trade value between January and October last year saw combined sales and exports through the New ILSTC reach 1.35 trillion yuan ($196 billion), up 17.9% year-on-year.
“Trade between China and ASEAN has increased since 2017, when the New International Land-Sea Corridor was launched, with ASEAN’s share of China’s exports rising from 12.4% to 17.6% by 2025,” commented Lynn Song, chief economist, Greater China at ING in Hong Kong. “It appears that there are local plans to further expand these channels, which should continue to contribute to the growth of trade between China and ASEAN in general.”
From Beijing’s point of view, trade growth was not very impressive in the first two months of this year.
Exports from China to Southeast Asia in dollars rose 29.4% in January and February. Overall Chinese exports grew 21.8 percent in the period, defying a Reuters poll of economists in December that had forecast a 7.1 percent increase in exports. Chinese imports also rose overall, rising 19.8% over the same period. But China still booked an additional record of 213.6 billion dollars for a 25.3% gain over the same period in 2025: the year when the country’s trade reached the highest value of 1.2 trillion dollars.
“The share of exports from China to ASEAN economies has grown steadily from about 5.5% in 2000 to more than 15% in 2024,” said Professor Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University in Brisbane. “However, there was no significant break-off point: rather, it was a normal growth in line with the growth of the ASEAN economy in general. Imports from ASEAN countries, meanwhile, have stood for the last five years at about 15% of the total amount exported to China. Chongqing is still relatively small, handling about 251,800 TEU or only 0.5% of Shanghai’s EU5 million.”
That is expected to change as the Guangxi Pinglu Canal opens for 5,000-ton vessels later this year, providing sea access from the mainland to southern ports and ASEAN countries.
“If the Pinglu Canal is opened at the end of 2026, with its annual capacity of 89 million tons, the Chinese provinces in the southwest of the country will be better connected to the ASEAN economies by reducing travel times from weeks to days, said Nedopil-Wang.
The latter was established in 2015 to improve connectivity between the two countries and between landlocked western China and ASEAN. Last December, the links became even closer when the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore and the National Data Administration of China signed an MoU for the Digital New ILSTC, which focuses on AI, blockchain, data analysis, and digital economy cooperation. In the same month, the People’s Bank of China gave more impetus to the New ILSTC when it revealed a number of financial support measures aimed at increasing the financing of infrastructure projects, promoting the use of digital renminbi for settlement and aimed at expanding the trade of Asian countries.
“The Land-Sea Corridor will likely further strengthen opportunities for Chinese exporters,” Nedopil-Wang noted. “But the extent to which ASEAN members will benefit from China’s improved export opportunities through the corridor depends on their ability to provide attractive industrial or consumer goods suitable for China’s southwestern regions.”
