“BEIJING -- The worldwide surge in demand for artificial intelligence is driving a wave of exports from China, keeping the world's second-largest economy humming despite turmoil from the war in Iran.
China's export growth surged 19.4% in May from a year earlier in dollar terms, according to data released Tuesday by Beijing's General Administration of Customs. The result exceeded the 14.1% year-over-year increase seen in April, and surprised economists who expected the growth rate to slow.
The export figures for May show how selling Chinese-made goods to the rest of the world remains the main driver of growth for an economy that has embedded itself more deeply in global supply chains for advanced technologies.
The global AI investment boom has provided a powerful tailwind for China, helping cushion the impact of broader economic headwinds, including the Mideast conflict.
China's price competitiveness, as well as its dominance of green-energy products amid uncertainty in global energy markets, looks set to continue, Sheana Yue, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, told clients in a note Tuesday.
"The war is boosting demand for green exports, such as electric vehicles, batteries, solar products, and AI-related technology goods, which are linked to China's structural focus," she wrote. "China, relatively insulated from energy-related cost shocks, retains advantages in scale, supply-chain depth and industrial capacity."
China's semiconductor exports soared 110% from a year earlier in May, after doubling in year-over-year terms in April, official data showed.
Almost none of May's increase came from higher volumes of shipments, but rather from higher prices for semiconductors amid a continuing shortage of memory chips. In volume terms, semiconductor exports rose by just 6% in May from the year-earlier period, said Abhijit Surya, an economist at Capital Economics. Other sectors leading the flood of exports were automatic-data processing machines, which jumped 66%, and autos, which climbed 39% in May.
China's rare-earth exports more than tripled in dollar terms, soaring 237% in May from a year earlier, according to data from the customs bureau. That reflected skyrocketing prices for the valued inputs into high-tech products, since rare-earth exports actually fell in volume terms from a year earlier, the data showed.
Among China's biggest trading partners, outbound shipments to the U.S. surged 35% from a year earlier in May, an acceleration from April's 11% increase. The ramp-up in exports to the U.S. was made possible by eased trade relations following a summit last month between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The strong numbers also reflect a favorable comparison with May last year, when the tariff dispute between the world's two largest economies was at a fever pitch.
Exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China's largest trading partner as a bloc, climbed 24% from a year earlier in May, up from a 15% gain in April.
By contrast, shipments to the European Union slowed to a 7.6% increase, from 13% in April.
On the other side of the trade ledger, China's imports also saw a big jump in May, climbing 27% from a year earlier. That was a faster rate of increase than the 25% rise seen in April, and beat economists' expectations for a 22% rise. But because China exports so much more than it imports, China's trade surplus widened to $105.4 billion in May from $84.8 billion in April.” [1]
Sluggish import growth numbers show that EU needs less “oxygen” from China than others, since EU is slowly dying while clueless Germany’s leader Merz is around.
1. World News: AI Boom Drives Surge In Chinese Exports --- Semiconductors and rare earths provide a powerful tailwind to lift the economy. Cheng, Jonathan. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 June 2026: A7.
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