The Land King light electric truck of Weichai New Energy Commercial Vehicle Co is on display at the 133rd session of the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, on April 16, 2023. Product inquiries from Russian buyers account for about 60 percent of the total. Photo: Chi Jingyi/ GT

Traders from Russia are flocking to the 133rd China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, to seek high-quality suppliers from China and items that can be substituted for those of European and US brands that have pulled out of the Russian market.

The 133rd Canton Fair, which started on Saturday, is the largest trade show in terms of attendance since China fully resumed its on-site exhibitions, going back to the start of the pandemic.

It is estimated that some 10,000 Russians in the business community - higher than the usual annual number of 7,000 - are visiting the show, according to a report by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"I booked a hotel for the fair one month in advance, even before I got my visa," Slastin, a six-time Russian participant, told the Global Times on Monday. Slastin didn't offer his full name.

A buyer from Russia, who declined to be identified, told the Global Times that he is looking for high-quality industrial component manufacturers in China. 

"Because of the sanctions imposed by the US, we need to replace a well-known European brand that makes industrial parts, and we came to the fair to find a good alternative," the buyer said.

Electronics goods, automobiles and new-energy vehicles (NEVs) are among the top items sought after by Russian traders, the Global Times learned.

The enthusiasm of Russian buyers at the Canton Fair will make it easier to reach the China-Russia bilateral trade target of $200 billion by 2024, and it may even be achieved this year, experts noted on Monday.

China-Russia trade maintained strong growth in the first quarter with an increase of 38.7 percent from a year earlier to $53.85 billion, far outpacing the growth of China's total trade, data from China's General Administration of Customs showed last week.

"A lot of Russian buyers came to ask about our electric trucks, accounting for about 60 percent of all foreign businessmen these two days," a sales manager surnamed Liao from Weichai New Energy Commercial Vehicle Co, told the Global Times.

Several Chinese NEV exhibitors said they had received an unexpectedly large number of Russian buyers.

China has become Russia's main source of imported passenger cars. Russia imported about 117,000 passenger cars from China in 2022, up 40 percent from the previous year, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"We sent only four salespeople to the booth this time, and each one had more than 50 inquiries from foreign businessmen every day," Liao said.

In March, China and Russia issued the Pre-2030 Development Plan on Priorities in China-Russia Economic Cooperation.

The pre-2030 plan, covering eight aspects of economic cooperation from finance to logistics to cooperation in specific sectors such as energy and agriculture, could easily propel bilateral trade to $400 billion by 2030, nearly double the current level, experts said.