Especially in the area of precision industrial products, the gap between the two sides is further narrowed.

In particular, in the three years from 2020 to 2022, China expanded its share of EU imports by as much as in the entire previous decade, and even more in some categories.

According to the report, if the above trend develops, China will surpass Germany in exports of sophisticated industrial products to the EU in a few years, and this will also lead to structural changes, more and more EU products will come from China.

The chart below shows that the share of EU imports of advanced industrial products from China in total trade has surpassed that of Germany.

Products covered include pharmaceutical products, metal products, computers, electrical and optical products, electrical equipment, machinery, motor vehicles and parts, and other vehicles. By 2022, China will account for 72.6 percent of the total, compared with 61 percent for Germany. This further proves that China has a certain competitive advantage in high-end industrial products.

SST-PB3-SLC

Sinking into the subdivision of the industry, this topic becomes more three-dimensional.

Situation by industry

From the perspective of various fields of products, China’s largest exports are data processing equipment, electronics and optical products, accounting for 29.7%.

Germany’s share is 7.1 per cent. In addition, in areas such as data processing equipment, China’s share has been significantly ahead of Germany for more than a decade.

The second is electrical equipment. While China has only recently overtaken Germany in this area, it has significantly increased its share of the lead between 2020 and 2022. From only 1 percentage point ahead of Germany in 2020, it is already 8 percentage points ahead of Germany in 2022. This shows that China’s export strength and competitive advantage in these areas are increasing. As shown in the following picture.