Economics
China's Slipping Export Crown Could Be Saved by Technology
- Commodity producers have been clawing back their market share
- Economists see competitiveness retained amid a shift upmarket
Foxconn employees operate on the assembly line at the Foxconn factory in Longhua, Shenzhen, China, on May 26, 2010.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
After decades of relentless gains, China’s share of global exports is now edging down. Whether that continues hinges a lot on how fast it can shift into higher-technology shipments.
China’s portion of the global export pie has shrunk from a high of almost 17 percent reached in December 2015, International Monetary Fund data show. The pullback is driven mainly by the growth of shipments from commodity-exporting nations like Brazil and Australia amid rising prices for staples like iron ore and bauxite, according to economists from Oxford Economics and TCW Group Inc.