New markets, higher-value products give boost
Although the nation's shipments abroad fell last year, China remained the world's factory, holding its status as the largest exporter with its proportion of global exports rising to 13.8 percent.
Experts said on Sunday that China has been the world's No.1 exporter for years and that probably won't change anytime soon, despite challenges and uncertainties.
In 2015, the nation's proportion of global exports rose from 12.3 percent in 2014, data from the UN Conference on Trade and Employment showed, Reuters reported on Friday. Last time a country achieved such a high percentage was 47 years ago, when it was the U.S. that held the position.
The success belies widespread predictions rising costs for Chinese labor and a currency that has increased nearly 20 percent against the dollar in the last decade would cause China to lose market share to cheaper competitors, according to Reuters.
China's exports in 2015 contracted 1.8 percent year-on-year. Total trade fell 7 percent.
One reason China took a larger share of global exports in 2015 was that domestic companies have in recent years carved out new markets in emerging economies, Wang Yue, a senior research manager with IDC China, told the Global Times Sunday.
"Traditionally, China exported to developed economies, but this pattern is undergoing changes. Boosted by urbanization, emerging markets such as Indonesia and Brazil generated strong growth figures for Chinese exporters," Wang said.
He noted, however, that other factors are eroding China's position as the world's factory. One trend is that low-cost manufacturing is shifting away from China to other, lower-wage countries, while advanced manufacturing is returning to developed countries.
"There are currently two theories concerning China's status as the world's No.1 exporter. One is that China will step down relatively fast as it loses to emerging market competitors over the cost factor. The other is that China will continue to grow to become an export behemoth," Zhang Ning, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Sunday.
"But maybe neither scenario will develop," he said, noting that China may perhaps remain a strong exporter but never a super exporter.
China is moving up the value chain, which helps it secure market share, he said.
With a better-educated labor force and increasing investment in innovation, China's products are generally of a higher unit value, Reuters reported.
"If the age of smart manufacturing, powered by robots and artificial intelligence, arrives as expected, high-end exporting economies such as the US and Germany will gain the upper hand," Zhang said.
"A skilled labor force, one of the most essential edges in Chinese manufacturing, will became less relevant against the exploding productivity gains achieved by robots," he noted.
