Transportation Equipment: Vehicles and Tractors

Transportation products stand out clearly within the high-momentum cohort. Passenger vehicles are among the most prominent, with export growth reaching a CAGR of roughly 60% between 2019 and 2024. This expansion has been driven by competitive pricing, improving quality and rising demand across emerging markets.

While much attention focuses on electric vehicles, the broader passenger vehicle category, including internal combustion and hybrid models, remains a powerful export driver, particularly in markets prioritising affordability, rapid motorisation and fleet expansion.

Agricultural tractors, with a 39% CAGR, represent a smaller but strategically important segment. Their growth reflects rising mechanisation across agriculture in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Although export volumes remain modest relative to passenger vehicles, demand is structurally supported by food security imperatives and productivity gains.

Together, these transportation exports illustrate a broader shift: China’s competitiveness increasingly extends beyond consumer goods into complex, capital-intensive equipment with long replacement cycles.

Machinery & Electronics: Batteries and Equipment (Construction, Special-Purpose, Industrial)

Machinery exports remain one of the most durable pillars of China’s export base, and several sub-categories exhibit powerful momentum.

Electric batteries, with a 32% CAGR, stand out as the most strategically significant product in this group. In 2024, batteries were China’s seventh-largest export product overall, with an export value of approximately USD 67 billion. These batteries are best understood not as consumer goods, but as manufactured industrial inputs at the core of electrification supply chains.

Battery export momentum reflects a rare combination of drivers: accelerating global deployment of electric vehicles and energy storage systems, expanding downstream manufacturing capacity across multiple regions, and a structural shift toward higher-value-added components, where Chinese producers hold scale advantages. Unlike many fast-growing export lines that remain too small to matter, batteries already carry sufficient export weight to make incremental growth economically material and strategically visible.

Heading into 2026, batteries should be viewed as one of China’s most scalable export engines. They are closely linked to industrial capex cycles, increasingly embedded in global manufacturing ecosystems and relatively resilient to short-term demand fluctuations because they serve both transport and grid applications.

Construction machinery, with a CAGR of 15%, will also feature prominently in 2026, supported by infrastructure investment across emerging economies and ongoing capital expenditure cycles. Excavators, loaders and related equipment benefit from China’s scale advantages, integrated supply chains and financing capabilities.

Special-purpose machinery (CAGR 16%) spans a wide range of industrial applications and combines steady growth with high export value. These products are embedded in production processes rather than final consumption, making demand less sensitive to short-term consumer cycles. Vacuum flasks (CAGR 14%) and related equipment, while less industrial in nature, illustrate how niche manufacturing segments with brand recognition and scale can continue to deliver sustained growth.

The common thread across these machinery categories is capex-linked demand. As global investment cycles normalise and infrastructure needs persist, machinery exports offer China a relatively stable growth channel in 2026.

Chemicals & Materials: Plastics, Polymers and Industrial Inputs

Chemical exports rarely attract headlines, but they play a critical role in sustaining China’s export momentum. Polypropylene polymers (CAGR 35%), inorganic salts (CAGR 31%), synthetic rubber (CAGR 26%) and other processed chemical inputs all feature among the higher-growth export categories.

While none individually rival vehicles or machinery in absolute export value, collectively these products form a broad and resilient layer of industrial exports, benefiting from scale production, integrated upstream supply and close linkage to manufacturing and construction demand. Growth in chemicals is typically cyclical rather than explosive, but also less volatile and less exposed to trade policy shocks.

For 2026, chemicals and processed materials are likely to remain quiet contributors; not driving headlines, but underpinning overall export performance.

Textiles & Apparel: Selective Strength, not a Comeback

Textiles no longer define China’s export identity, but selected segments continue to show momentum. Knitted apparel (CAGR 16%), stretch knitted fabrics (CAGR 12%) and footwear parts (CAGR 8%) are among the fastest-growing textile-related exports.

Growth in textiles is selective rather than systemic. These segments benefit from specialised manufacturing, design capabilities and supply-chain integration that are not easily replicated elsewhere. They contribute to export momentum at the margin but do not signal a return to labour-intensive export dominance.

Agriculture and Food Processing: Incremental but Strategic

Agricultural and food-related exports feature less prominently in terms of scale, but several products show notable growth. Fresh vegetables (CAGR 18%), fruit and vegetable juices (CAGR 15%) and edible plant products (CAGR 13%) all exhibit steady expansion, while processed fats and oils recorded an exceptionally high CAGR of 38%.

Export demand in these categories is driven by urbanisation, growth in food processing capacity and rising incomes across developing markets. While unlikely to drive aggregate export growth, these products play a strategic role by diversifying export exposure, strengthening trade relationships and complementing machinery and transport exports along infrastructure-led development corridors.