Prime Highlights
- DMCC now hosts more than 1,000 Chinese companies, up 9.4 percent over the past year.
- DMCC launches the Chinese-language edition of its Future of Trade report in Shanghai.
Key Facts
- AI-related goods drove 43 percent of global trade growth in early 2025.
- South-South trade now makes up about 35 percent of global flows.
Background
More than 1,000 Chinese companies have joined the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, marking a 9.4 percent rise over the past year as Chinese firms increasingly use the free trade zone for international expansion, DMCC said during a roadshow in Shanghai.
Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman and chief executive officer of DMCC, the largest free trade zone in the United Arab Emirates, said China is playing a leading role in shaping global trade, spanning semiconductors, data centers, critical minerals for artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, batteries and the wider clean-energy supply chain.
He said Dubai and DMCC offer Chinese businesses a platform for international growth, connecting them to almost 27,000 companies across technology, energy, finance and commodities, with plans to support more Chinese companies scaling operations and reaching new markets.
During the roadshow, DMCC also launched the Chinese-language edition of its Future of Trade report, which finds that global trade will stay resilient over the next two years, shaped by artificial intelligence at operational scale, tariff volatility, resilience-focused supply chains and competition for critical minerals and clean-energy infrastructure.
The report names artificial intelligence a leading driver of trade growth, noting that trade in AI-related goods such as semiconductors, servers and data-center hardware expanded by more than 20 percent in early 2025, generating 43 percent of total trade growth despite just 15 percent of global trade volume.
It also points to the rising influence of South-South trade, with flows between developing economies now accounting for about 35 percent of global trade, ahead of North-North trade at around 25 percent. DMCC’s delegation will next visit Wuxi and Xi’an as part of its China roadshow series.
