China trade-ins spark 2.6 trillion yuan sales surge

Sales of consumer goods under China’s policy-backed trade-in programme exceeded 2.6 trillion yuan, equivalent to about $369.9 billion, in 2025, benefiting more than 360 million people, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

More than 11.5 million automobiles, 129 million home appliances, 91 million digital products, 120 million home decoration, kitchen and bathroom items, as well as 12.5 million electric bicycles were purchased through the programme during the year, according to Global Times.

In the first 11 months of 2025, retail sales of consumer goods rose 4 per cent year on year, with the trade-in programme contributing more than 1 percentage point to overall growth, according to the ministry.

The initiative also supported industrial upgrading and the green transition. New energy vehicles accounted for nearly 60 per cent of automobile trade-ins, helping push the retail market share of new energy passenger vehicles above 50 per cent for nine consecutive months.

In 2025, the recycling volume of scrapped automobiles jumped 24.5 per cent year on year, enabling the recycling of about 9.6 million tonnes of steel and 1.3 million tonnes of non-ferrous metals, while reducing carbon emissions by around 24.5 million tonnes. Meanwhile China’s service trade maintained steady growth in the first 11 months of the year, with total imports and exports reaching over 7.2 trillion yuan (approximately US$1.02 trillion), up 7.1 per cent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Specifically, service exports rose 13.4 per cent to nearly 3.2 trillion yuan during this period, while imports increased 2.5 per cent to more than 4 trillion yuan, according to the ministry’s data. Notably, the service trade deficit narrowed by 279.63 billion yuan compared to the same period of 2024.

WAM