China’s July export growth slows but remains driven by high-tech and green tech demand

China’s export expansion eased slightly in July yet remained resilient, buoyed by surging demand for electric vehicles, electronics, and green technology amid shifting global trade patterns and ongoing tensions with the US.

China’s export growth eased in July but remained stronger than expected, with demand for high-tech products, electric vehicles and other advanced industrial goods helping to offset weather-related disruption and continued trade pressure from the United States. Customs data released on Friday showed that the country’s trade surplus narrowed to $112.5 billion from $125.6 billion in June, even as exports and imports both stayed at elevated levels.

Exports rose nearly 24% from a year earlier, slowing from June’s 27% pace, while imports increased 27.5% year on year after a 36% jump the previous month. Analysts had expected a softer reading, but the figures still pointed to resilient external demand. Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report that the “boom in Chinese trade slowed a touch in July” but that export and import values remained high, supported by strong global demand for electronics and green technology products.

The latest figures also underline how far China’s trade profile has shifted. According to the customs data, exports of high-tech goods rose nearly 41% in the January-to-July period from a year earlier, while vehicle shipments, many of them electric, climbed 55%. Exports of electronics and machinery increased 26%. That mix suggests China is now supplying more of the components and equipment used in advanced manufacturing, rather than relying primarily on low-cost consumer goods.

Trade with the United States has weakened under higher tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, and Chinese exports to the US rose only 2.6% in the first seven months of the year. Even so, broader trade flows remained solid, with exports to the European Union up nearly 17% and shipments to Southeast Asia, now China’s biggest trading partner as a bloc, rising 25%. The data also showed imports of crude oil fell 13.2% by volume in the January-to-July period, while rare earth exports dropped 10% by volume but climbed 58% in value, highlighting both softer commodity demand and the strategic importance of those materials.

At the same time, officials and state media have pushed back against claims that China is flooding world markets with excess capacity. A commentary from Xinhua recently pointed to surging air-conditioner exports to Europe during a heat wave, arguing that overseas consumers were buying Chinese products because they met demand local brands were not meeting. That message comes as trade tensions are likely to remain high on the agenda ahead of Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the US next month.