China’s top export products
China sells more goods abroad than any other country. OEC, the trade data site, puts its product exports at $3.59 trillion in 2024, up from $2.65 trillion in 2019 [1]. These were the 15 largest products that year [2]:
| Rank | Product | Exports, 2024 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Telephones (including mobile phones) | $319B | 8.9% |
| 2 | Computers | $185B | 5.1% |
| 3 | Integrated circuits | $171B | 4.8% |
| 4 | Cars | $90B | 2.5% |
| 5 | Electric batteries | $76B | 2.1% |
| 6 | Vehicle parts | $54B | 1.5% |
| 7 | Semiconductor devices (including solar cells) | $54B | 1.5% |
| 8 | Electrical transformers | $52B | 1.5% |
| 9 | Office machine parts | $46B | 1.3% |
| 10 | Toys | $40B | 1.1% |
| 11 | Video displays | $36B | 1.0% |
| 12 | Insulated wire | $34B | 0.9% |
| 13 | Refined petroleum | $33B | 0.9% |
| 14 | Electric heaters | $32B | 0.9% |
| 15 | Plastic products | $32B | 0.9% |
Even the top product is under a tenth of the total. What stands out is how broad China’s export base is: furniture, light fittings, luggage, seats and headphones each brought in about $30 billion in 2024 [2].
China’s main exports by sector
Grouped into broad sectors, machinery and electronics are now almost half of everything China sells abroad. Using OEC’s long-run series, which is consistent back to 2000 [2]:
| Sector | Share of exports, 2000 | Share of exports, 2024 | Value, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machinery and electronics | 32.0% | 47.4% | $1,703B |
| Metals | 5.6% | 7.9% | $283B |
| Textiles and clothing | 17.1% | 7.3% | $261B |
| Vehicles, ships and other transport | 1.9% | 7.1% | $253B |
| Chemicals | 3.4% | 6.3% | $227B |
| Miscellaneous (toys, furniture, lighting) | 11.2% | 5.9% | $212B |
| Footwear and headwear | 6.4% | 1.8% | $66B |
Shares are our arithmetic from OEC data. Textiles, clothing, shoes, toys and furniture made up about a third of China’s exports in 2000 and are about 15% now, while transport equipment has gone from almost nothing to a quarter of a trillion dollars.
How China’s exports have changed since 2000
The treemaps in the infographic on this page, made by u/RobinWheeliams from OEC data, compare 2000 with 2023 and show the shift well. In 2000 the largest products were computers and office machine parts, but the next places went to toys, luggage, sweaters, leather shoes and women’s suits. China was mainly assembling electronics designed elsewhere and making cheap, labour-intensive consumer goods. By 2023 phones, computers and chips led, with cars, electric batteries and semiconductor devices close behind [3].
Total exports grew about tenfold over the period. That means the old products did not disappear: toys, for example, went from about $12 billion in 2000 to about $39 billion in 2024 [2]. They simply grew much more slowly than electronics and vehicles.
One thing to know if you compare the graphic with OEC’s site today: trade data gets revised, and OEC publishes it under several versions of the Harmonized System product codes. Its current figures put 2000 exports at about $391 billion rather than the $339 billion on the graphic, and telephones at about 10% of 2023 exports rather than 6.44% [2]. The overall picture is the same.
China’s newest export industries, cars, batteries and solar
The biggest change of the last few years is in clean energy and vehicles, which Chinese officials call the “new three” (electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar products). Car exports were worth $90 billion in 2024 and electric batteries $76 billion, and semiconductor devices, which include solar cells, a further $54 billion [2]. Car exports have kept growing since: China shipped more than a million passenger cars in September 2026 alone, about 365,000 of them electric [4].
This growth has also brought pushback from trading partners. In October 2026 Beijing and Brussels agreed a deal to curb Chinese hybrid car exports to the EU [4]. In January 2026 China also scrapped export tax rebates for its solar industry, a long-running complaint of EU countries [5].
Who buys China’s exports
The United States was still the largest single buyer in 2024, taking $453 billion of Chinese goods, followed by Hong Kong ($278 billion), Japan ($162 billion), Vietnam ($159 billion) and Germany ($151 billion) [1]. That is changing fast. After the US raised tariffs in 2025, China’s exports to the US fell 20% that year, while exports to Africa rose 25.8%, to Southeast Asia 13.4% and to the EU 8.4% [5]. China ended 2025 with a record trade surplus of $1.189 trillion [5].
Exports have stayed strong in 2026. They reached a monthly record of $447 billion in September 2026, up 36.3% on a year earlier, driven by electronics and chips for AI data centres and by car shipments [4].
Questions about China export products
What are China’s main exports?
Machinery and electronics, which were 47% of China’s exports in 2024. The biggest single products are mobile phones and other telephones ($319 billion), computers ($185 billion) and integrated circuits ($171 billion), followed by cars and electric batteries [1][2].
What is China’s number one export?
Telephones, mostly mobile phones, worth $319 billion in 2024, or about 9% of China’s exports [1].
How much does China export a year?
About $3.6 trillion of goods, according to OEC’s figure of $3.59 trillion for 2024, the most of any country [1]. In 2000 it was about $391 billion on OEC’s current data [2].
Does China still export clothes and toys?
Yes, and more than ever in dollar terms. Textiles and clothing brought in $261 billion and toys about $40 billion in 2024, but they are a much smaller share of exports than in 2000 [2].
Who are China’s biggest export partners?
The US, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam and Germany were the top five in 2024 [1]. Since the 2025 US tariffs, Southeast Asia, the EU and Africa have taken a growing share [5].
Sources
- OEC, China country profile (2024 figures).
- OEC, China exports by product (BACI data, HS 1992 series for 2000 to 2024 sector shares and HS 2017 series for the 2024 product ranking; shares are our arithmetic).
- u/RobinWheeliams, From textiles to tech, visualizing China’s exports, r/dataisbeautiful, 2024.
- Trading Economics, China exports (September 2026 figures).
- Reuters, China’s trade ends 2025 with record trillion dollar surplus despite Trump tariffs, 14 January 2026.
Last reviewed 6 November 2026
