The Next Step for Shandong-Europe Economic and Trade Cooperation

Recently, the 2026 SEE Qingdao Forum was held in Qingdao, Shandong, under the theme “SOEs, Private and Foreign Enterprises: Innovation Together for High-Quality Development”.

The forum has been held seven times, and for the first time, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shandong Province was added as an organizer this year.It means that the resources and participations of this forum have expanded from Qingdao to the whole province, which will help promote targeted matchmaking between Shandong and European enterprises in some fields such as new energy, high-end equipment, international logistics, etc.

Shandong's economic and trade exchanges with Europe rest on a relatively solid foundation.

Data from the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce show that in 2025, Shandong's imports and exports with Europe totaled RMB 658.51 billion, up 4.3% year-on-year; 204 new European-invested enterprises were established, up 9.1% year-on-year; actual use of European investment reached USD 408 million. The EU is Shandong's third-largest trading partner, and the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and other European countries are all among Shandong's top ten sources of foreign investment.

In the first half of 2026, Shandong's imports and exports with Europe totaled RMB 382.26 billion, up 18.2% year-on-year; 91 new European-invested enterprises were established; and actual use of European investment reached USD 403 million, up 21.6% year-on-year.

SCO Demonstration Area (Image source: Xinhua News Agency)

Smooth logistics corridor is also important for the economic and trade exchanges. In the first half of 2026, Shandong operated a total of 1073 China-Europe and China-Central Asia cross-border round-trip freight trains, 159 more than in the same period last year, up 17.4% year-on-year; the two national assembly centers for China-Europe freight trains in Jinan and Qingdao operated a combined 813 trains, accounting for 75.8% of the province's total.

As of August this year, Shandong's China-Europe freight trains have operated more than 600 dedicated supply chain trains for key export-oriented enterprises in the SCO Demonstration Zone, serving more than 7,000 foreign trade enterprises, driving large-scale exports of high-value-added products such as home appliances and mechanical and electrical products, and transporting goods worth about RMB 49 billion in total. During the heatwaves in Europe this summer, the supply stability and market competitiveness of Qingdao home appliance brands in European, Central Asian, and other markets continued to strengthen.