Visitors show interest in robots on display at the Canton Fair on October 15, 2025 in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. Photo: VCG

The 138th Canton Fair kicked off in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday, and will run through November 4 in three phases. As China's key trade fair, the Canton Fair has long served as a barometer and weathervane for China's foreign trade.

This edition started with several notable firsts. From the perspective of exhibitors, this edition features over 10,000 high-quality enterprises, a record high, accounting for 34 percent of export exhibitors. The fair will showcase 353,000 smart products in total, the Global Times learned from the organizer.

In terms of exhibition themes, the fair introduced a dedicated smart medical zone for the first time, attracting 47 companies with surgical robots, intelligent monitoring and wearable devices, better highlighting China's advanced medical products and technologies, the organizer said.

The service robot zone continues to attract global buyers, the Global Times observed in the exhibition area. A total of 46 leading industry firms exhibited embodied robots and robot dogs.

More high-tech

Guo Wei, CMO of Shenzhen Intelligence.Ally Technology Co., Ltd. (Allybot), a commercial intelligent robot company, told the Global Times at the Canton Fair that they had secured some 2,000 export orders for their commercial cleaning robots in the first half of the year after having attended the Canton Fair for the first time in April, with exports maintaining growth in the second half. 

"On the first day of the Canton Fair, we garnered potential orders exceeding 1 million yuan ($140,311)," Guo said, adding the company expects a 300 percent year-on-year export growth for the full year.

Abdelhamid Yousef, a buyer and distributor from Miami, Florida, was attracted by the Allybot's new products launch ceremony at the Canton Fair.

"This is my first time at the Canton Fair, and I'm looking to procure robots that can deliver food and packages inside buildings," Yousef told the Global Times.

Despite uncertainties in US tariffs, Yousef believes Chinese robots still hold strong market potential in the US and he said he will place some orders right away. "China's robotics industry is way ahead with high-quality products, so I'm happy to do business with China." 

Guo said their main export markets include Europe, North America, East Asia and Southeast Asia. "The US market is largely unaffected by tariffs, only the export delivery process might become more cumbersome. However, with inflation and rising labor costs abroad, demand for intelligent cleaning is increasing."

Overseas demand for delivery and cleaning robots is high due to elevated labor costs, Bi Cheng, a manager of the Brand Department at Shenzhen Pudu Technology Co., told the Global Times on Wednesday at the Canton Fair. 

"In the future, by combining AI, robots will handle packing and unpacking in factories. The Canton Fair gathers buyers with real needs, and we are here hoping to seize business opportunities," Bi said.

Wu Jian, Overseas Sales Manager of MagicLab Robotics Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., told the Global Times on Wednesday that their robots and robotic dogs are mainly exported to Europe and the US, with applications in factory handling and on-site inspections. 

Exports already account for nearly half the company's revenue, with overseas schools and Amazon purchasing their robots for application development, Wu said.

In addition to delivery, cleaning and inspection robots, collaborative robot exports are also rising, Li Jiaxian, Brand Manager of Dobot Technology, told the Global Times on Wednesday at the Canton Fair.

Their collaborative robots have been sold to over 100 countries and regions worldwide, with exports in 2024 growing over 50 percent. In the first half of 2025, commercial service robot revenue surged 165.5 percent year-on-year, overseas revenue grew 8.4 percent, and overseas income now comprises 52.4 percent of total revenue, Li said.

Supply chain advantages

On the growth momentum of Chinese robot exports, Guo attributed it to China's global competitiveness in research and development, supply chains and services. 

"China has cultivated abundant R&D talent capable of fusing cross-disciplinary technologies, enabling low-cost, rapid product iterations. For supply chains, like the hundreds of components in commercial cleaning robots, 95 percent can be sourced in the Pearl River Delta for a one-hour rapid response. Moreover, robot maintenance involving software, hardware, algorithms, and communications benefits from China's cross-disciplinary talent, providing timely global service," Guo said.

"Within a radius of five kilometers, you can find all the upstream and downstream suppliers for electronic products in Guangdong's cities, such as Foshan and Shunde. The advantages of China's industrial chain are becoming increasingly prominent," Geng Liang, sales manager at Millplan Electric Appliance (Shenzhen) Co, told the Global Times at the company's booth.

"It's hard to compete with the supply chain advantages that enterprises from Foshan and Shunde have. We are a company from Shenzhen. If we want to be competitive, we must focus on technological innovation, as Shenzhen has strengths in this area," said Geng.

In recent years, Chinese intelligent manufacturing, new products and technologies have captivated global buyers. Procurement representatives from various countries remain confident in Chinese manufacturing and quality, vowing to continue sourcing high-quality products from China for their markets.

When asked what Chinese products are most popular in Brazil, Lincoln Fracari, lead of a group of 305 buyers from Brazil, told the Global Times on Wednesday at the Canton Fair "I would say all of them."

"[The] Canton fair is one of the most important events for the entrepreneurs," Fracari said. 

Yet they are lucky exhibitors and buyers that made to the Canton Fair, as bookings for booths at this edition were in high demand, despite the Fair encompassing 1.55 million square meters of exhibition space, with a record high of 74,600 booths and over 32,000 exhibitors, as well as some 3,600 first-time participants.

At this 138th edition, the Canton Fair's global partners expanded by 18 to a record 227, covering 110 countries and regions, broadening the foreign trade network, according to statistics from the organizer. Leading procurement firms are actively attending, exceeding 400 in number, reflecting foreign confidence in the Chinese market.

"From the outset, China has been more than just our largest sourcing market. It has been our strategic heartland - a place where we have nurtured deep partnerships, embraced innovation, and built a resilient supply chain that delivers quality, efficiency, and sustainability at scale," Stefan Hiergeist, Country Director of Lidl & Kaufland Asia, the sourcing arm of Lidl International and part of the Schwarz Group, Europe's largest retail group, said on Tuesday at an opening reception for the Canton Fair.

Here, our sourcing vision has matured, driven by the dynamism of the market, the scale and sophistication of China's supply chains, and the collaborative ecosystems we have built with forward-thinking suppliers and business partners, Hiergeist said.