On August 27, China News Service (Zhang Lu, Guan Qing) reported from Qingyuan citing the Qingyuan Customs under Guangzhou Customs: a batch of sodium-ion battery products from a local company in Qingyuan, Guangdong, was exported to Singapore after passing inspection, marking the first export of sodium-ion battery products from Qingyuan. The head of the lithium-sodium business unit at the exporting enterprise said the company was exporting sodium-ion batteries for the first time and was unfamiliar with the export compliance declaration, dangerous goods classification, and packaging/labeling requirements, and was seeking customs guidance. In response, Qingyuan Customs activated its first-export 'door-to-door service' mechanism, proactively conducting policy briefings and compliance guidance on dangerous goods classification, UN38.3 testing for sodium-ion batteries, dangerous goods packaging, and declaration elements, to de-risk customs procedures in advance.
Qingyuan Customs also disclosed that from January to July this year, Qingyuan exported RMB 200 million of lithium-ion batteries, up 88.1% year-on-year. Although sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries both fall under Class 9 miscellaneous dangerous goods, they differ significantly in UN dangerous goods numbers, UN38.3 test items, dangerous goods declaration, and packaging/labeling requirements—a core compliance threshold that sodium-ion enterprises generally face on their first export. The 'door-to-door service' mechanism has the value of moving compliance adjustments, which the enterprise would otherwise handle reactively after the fact, to a pre-export policy briefing and document preparation phase, helping to shorten the customs clearance cycle for first-time exporters.
The specific company name, model, export volume and value of the shipment were not disclosed in the public report, making it difficult to assess the scale; Qingyuan disclosed only lithium battery export data (RMB 200 million from January to July), and has not yet released cumulative sodium battery export data, so the volume and trend of sodium battery exports remain to be seen.