The new opportunities that foreign trade practitioners must seize are concentrated in the three most certain directions: High-end manufacturing fields with clear policy support, emerging market demand in industrial upgrading, and high value-added intermediate products in which China has established global advantages.
Let’s break it down to see what each direction is, what the data is, and how to approach it.
What policies are being promoted, the data tells you where the growth is fast
National industrial policy is a navigator. The direction it points out is often supported by real money such as export tax rebates and tariff reductions.
Currently, lithium battery materials, semiconductor components, and high-end equipment components are the three core support categories.
Lithium battery materials: This is the absolute main force for export growth.
In 2025, China’s lithium battery exports will reach US$76.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24%.
Among them, exports to the EU market were US$31 billion, a year-on-year increase of 40%.
Although the unit price has declined, the global market share continues to expand, and the layout of overseas production capacity is also accelerating.
Semiconductor components: This is a “stuck” field with a low localization rate but a surge in demand.
At present, the overall localization rate is less than 10%, but driven by the demand for AI computing power, orders for domestic equipment parts are growing rapidly.
Companies like Fuchuang Precision already have 7nm component mass production capabilities and have huge export potential.
High-end equipment components: As China’s high-end equipment goes overseas, core components are growing simultaneously.
In the first quarter of 2025, investment in the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 5.2%, laying a solid industrial foundation for the export of related intermediate products.
Policy support is real.
For these advanced manufacturing enterprises, export tax rebates are processed “once upon application” and can be processed within 1 working day at the earliest.
At the same time, through free trade agreements such as RCEP, companies can enjoy tariff reductions and exemptions from importing countries.
In the first quarter of 2026, Hebei enterprises alone enjoyed about 17.76 million yuan in tariff reductions and exemptions through RCEP.
What emerging markets want, our industrial chain can just give
In addition to the traditional European and American markets, the industrialization and energy transformation of RCEP countries, BRICS countries, and the Middle East have created huge demand for intermediate product imports.
The “one-stop” supporting capabilities of China’s entire industrial chain fully demonstrate its advantages here.
RCEP area: Demand is concentrated on mechanical and electrical products and green industry supporting facilities.
In the first quarter of 2026, China’s exports of mechanical and electrical products to Malaysia increased by 44.69%, and exports of base metals and products increased by 28.31%.
RCEP’s “regional accumulation rules” allow components to be accumulated and calculated among member countries, which is very suitable for Chinese companies to organize groups to go overseas and build regional industrial chains.
BRICS: These countries are in the stage of infrastructure construction or traditional industry upgrading.
In the first three quarters of 2024, China’s steel exports to other BRICS countries increased by 8.6%, and textile raw material exports increased by 13.4%.
Take India as an example. Despite its implementation of “Made in India”, the trade deficit with China in the 2025-2026 fiscal year still hit a record high of US$112.1 billion. Key industrial products such as electronic components and pharmaceutical intermediates are highly dependent on China.
Middle East: Economic diversification and transformation have created a large demand for photovoltaic, chemical, and power equipment.
Over 85% of India’s photovoltaic production equipment comes from China.
In the chemical industry, countries such as the United Arab Emirates have strong demand for Chinese polymeric MDI and other products.
China can not only export products, but also provide full-chain industrial services from planning, construction to operation.
Our core advantage lies in “full industry chain support”.
China is the only country in the world that has all industrial categories in the United Nations industrial classification, and its manufacturing added value accounts for nearly 30% of the world.
This means that we can provide all links from core components to overall solutions for an overseas project. This kind of resilience and efficiency is difficult to match in other countries.
High value-added products, our technological advantages have been realized
In frontier fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine, China not only has the advantage of production capacity and scale, but also formed technical barriers and cost advantages in some links, which makes the export of related intermediate products more profitable and growing faster.
New energy field: China accounts for about 85% of global battery cell production, and the global market share of photovoltaic intermediate products exceeds 60%.
In the first quarter of 2026, the total export value of the photovoltaic industry chain reached US$22.17 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%.
Artificial Intelligence Hardware: The global AI investment boom has boosted core hardware exports.
In the first four months of 2026, China’sintegrated circuit exports increased by 78.3% year-on-year, and the growth rate in April was as high as 99.6%.
Exports of industrial robots also increased by 30%.
Biomedicine: The R&D cost of innovative drugs in China is only 30% – 40% of that in Europe and the United States, and clinical trials are 2 – 3 times faster, giving a huge cost advantage.
In the first quarter of 2026, China’s biopharmaceutical out-licensing transaction volume has exceeded US$60 billion, nearly half of the total in 2025.
The cooperation with top overseas customers is the best recognition.
CATL’s overseas revenue accounts for more than 30%, and overseas orders in the first quarter of 2026 increased by 65% year-on-year.
Lens Technology is not only a long-term supplier of Apple, but also assembled thousands of robots for Tesla in 2025, becoming a core partner of its robot strategy.
In the field of biomedicine, Yilian Biotech and Roche have reached a global cooperation on ADC drugs, with an initial payment of up to US$570 million, marking the international giant’s systematic recognition of China’s original technology.
You may want to ask, are the barriers to entry for these opportunities very high?
The answer is: the industry chain is very long and opportunities are layered.
Leading enterprises directly connect with large overseas customers, while a large number of small and medium-sized foreign traders and manufacturers can focus on providing supporting secondary and tertiary intermediate products for these leading enterprises, or focus on serving the segmented needs of a specific emerging market.
The key is to find your position in the advantageous industrial chain and rely on China’s overall technology, production capacity and cost advantages to go overseas.
