The point of this page is real, sourced numbers about sourcing from China and Hong Kong — every figure is attributed to where it actually came from, and will be updated as newer data is published, rather than left as a set of invented statistics.
China's trade volume
- •China's total goods exports reached 26.99 trillion yuan in 2025, up 6.1% year over year — General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) / State Council Information Office
- •China's total imports and exports for 2025 exceeded 45.47 trillion yuan, up 3.8%, keeping China the world's largest trading nation in goods — GACC
- •Mechanical and electrical products made up 60.7% of China's exports in the first 10 months of 2025, growing 8.7% — GACC
Hong Kong as a re-export hub
- •Hong Kong's total re-exports reached HK$5,174.2 billion in 2025 — Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department
- •Re-exports from Hong Kong to mainland China alone were HK$3,103.0 billion in 2025, up 16.6% year over year — Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department
- •99% of Hong Kong's exports are re-exports, and mainland China accounts for roughly 40% of Hong Kong's total exports — Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department / World Bank (WITS)
The real pressure on small importers
Sourcing from overseas isn't risk-free, and small businesses feel it most:
- •72% of small importers reported rising costs due to trade-war-related tariff changes in 2025 — Freightos, "The 2025 Trade War Impact on Small Businesses"
- •96% of procurement executives say they would source more from small suppliers if it were easier to vet and onboard them, yet small suppliers receive only about 7% of total spend on average — Supplier.io, "The 2025 Small Business Sourcing Report"
- •Nearly 1 in 5 new businesses fail within their first 12 months, rising to roughly half within five years, with poor cash flow the most cited cause — small business failure research cited by Inc.
Shipping costs remain volatile
Ocean freight, the backbone of most bulk sourcing shipments, has been anything but stable:
- •The Drewry World Container Index averaged roughly $2,836 per 40-foot container across 2025, with weekly swings of several hundred dollars — Drewry World Container Index, reported via Freightos and other industry trackers
- •Red Sea shipping disruptions have forced major carriers to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, adding 10-15 days to some transit times through 2025 — industry freight reporting
What this means for buyers
None of these numbers are reasons to avoid sourcing from China or Hong Kong — trade volume through the region keeps growing precisely because it still works for millions of businesses. But they are reasons to treat verification, payment security, and shipping planning as seriously as the guide linked below covers, rather than assuming a smooth process by default.
Figures on this page are pulled from named, publicly available sources at time of writing (September 2026) and will be updated as newer data is published. If you find a figure that needs updating, let us know.