China expands EV, chip and chemical exports amid weak domestic demand

European Union and Beijing agreed to cap Chinese hybrid-vehicle shipments

China’s factories have cranked out electric vehicles, semiconductors and industrial robots for customers around the world as companies seek customers beyond a weak home market. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization said China could be making 45% of the world’s goods by 2030, compared with 6% in 2000.

Electric-vehicle exports have ballooned as Chinese companies such as BYD have expanded in global markets. Geely Automobile, one of China’s largest EV makers, sold over 300,000 vehicles last month, with exports of its EVs surging over 500% year over year. The Hangzhou-based company announced last week it had sold one million units globally of its popular electric model, the Geely E2, averaging one car sold a minute over two years.

The overseas expansion comes as Chinese car companies grapple with fewer customers and intense price wars at home. Through September, Chinese consumers bought about 22% fewer passenger vehicles this year than in the same period in 2025. Geely founder Li Shufu warned in March, according to Chinese state media, that domestic competition was pushing companies overseas. “We should not simply engage in price wars,” Li said, criticizing what he called “excessive internal competition.”

The artificial intelligence boom has boosted China’s export machine as prices for chips and other computing equipment have risen sharply alongside demand for AI. China’s exports of integrated circuits increased 111% in value in the first 10 months of the year, according to data released Tuesday. Christopher Millward, former president of the U.S. Information Technology Office, a trade association representing U.S. tech firms in China, said China has “successfully cornered the market” for many components necessary for high-tech products. “It’s part of a broader effort to really make China the dominant manufacturing force on the planet—and it’s been successful.”

A Rhodium Group report released last week found that China now makes nearly half of global capacity for basic chemicals and plastic resins. Chinese capacity to produce several chemicals critical for manufacturing and agriculture surged more than 75% from 2020 to 2025, the report found. Chemical exports from China are rising, especially to the developing world, as demand for chemicals softens at home. State-owned Sinopec said its chemical exports expanded by 70% year over year to reach a “historic high” in the first half of this year, according to a company release.

China’s overall trade surplus reached $1.04 trillion in the first 10 months of the year, according to official data released Tuesday, putting the country on track to exceed its $1.19 trillion record from last year. Exports rose 35% from a year earlier in October, slightly down from 36% growth in September; shipments to Europe rose by nearly a quarter year over year and shipments to the U.S. by a third. Imports increased by more than 41% in October from a year earlier.

China is highly reliant on exports for growth as it deals with a property-sector crash, sluggish consumer spending and high youth unemployment. Struggling to make profits at home, many Chinese companies have rushed overseas to find customers. The country’s trade surplus with the world is roughly triple the level in 2019.

The export expansion is likely to further increase tensions with Beijing’s trading partners, and officials in many countries, particularly in Europe, have raised concerns about Chinese competition’s effects on local industries. The Group of 20 has criticized China’s overreliance on exports, and the International Monetary Fund warned Beijing in a September report that exports “cannot remain a major engine of growth.”

The European Union and Beijing agreed to cap shipments of Chinese hybrid vehicles in talks last month. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet in Shenzhen next week during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, where they are likely to discuss trade issues. The United States and China extended a tariff truce in September after a trade war last year.

Beijing has pushed back against critics who attribute the export expansion to China’s economic model and government support for key industries, arguing that gains reflect innovation and global demand for Chinese products. “Everyone is, in a sense, facing the same damn problem,” said Brad Setser, a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and former senior adviser to the U.S. trade representative.