Green steel emerges as a new engine for exports; SMEs expand global markets through cross-border platforms

In the third quarter of 2025, China's steel exports continued to maintain a high-quality growth trend, with green and low-carbon steel and niche product categories showing outstanding export performance. According to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs, national steel exports in the first three quarters reached 78.2 million tons. Among them, the export share of low-carbon steel complying with the EU CE certification and the US API standard has increased to 38%, up 16.2 percentage points year-on-year. Cross-border e-commerce platforms have become an important carrier for small and medium-sized enterprises to break into overseas markets, driving a 47% year-on-year surge in special steel export value and accelerating the transformation of the export structure from 'scale-oriented' to 'value-oriented'.

Policy dividends have injected strong momentum into steel exports.In July this year, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly introduced the Action Plan for Facilitating Cross-Border E-Commerce Steel Exports, clarifying 12 supportive measures for low-carbon steel exports, including 'priority clearance' and 'simplified inspection', while establishing a mechanism for aligning steel standards with countries along the Belt and Road. Benefiting from this, Hebei Iron and Steel Group exported 23,000 tons of high-strength Steel Plates for wind power through cross-border platforms in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 89%, with products successfully entering the supply chain of European wind power equipment in Germany, Spain, and other countries.

The overseas vitality of small and medium-sized enterprises continues to be released. Huaruite Steel, a precision steel enterprise located in Wuxi, Jiangsu, has set up a 'Special Steel Zone' on Alibaba International Station, launching customized products for fields such as automotive manufacturing and medical equipment. In the first three quarters of this year, its overseas order volume exceeded 5,000 tons, with cold-worked die steel exports to Southeast Asian automotive parts enterprises increasing by 120% year-on-year. 'The platform's multilingual intelligent translation and overseas warehouse stock-keeping services enable us to quickly respond to small-batch, high-frequency overseas demands,' said the company's foreign trade responsible person.

Regional market layout is showing new changes. The European market has seen a surge in demand for green steel, with China's exports of