John Miller, Author at Trade Data Monitor

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John Miller

103 articles published

China’s EV Export Boom is Driving up Demand for RoRo Ships

UncategorizedApril 15, 2024107Views 0Likes 0Comments

China’s electric car export boom has fueled demand in the country for automobile transport ships, driving up prices for foreign buyers. Overall, in March, Chinese ship exports fell 5.9% year-on-year by quantity in March to 399, after steadily rising for most of this decade. By value, they increased 34% to $3.1 billion. So called Roll-on/roll-off,…

China Reboots Trade Thanks to Africa, India, Latin America

UncategorizedMarch 11, 2024328Views 0Likes 0Comments

Don’t let anybody tell you that globalization is dying—at least, not yet. Global trade economists obsess over consumer demand and rising protectionism in the U.S. and Europe, but this week’s release of Chinese trade statistics shows that other markets might soon be catching up in relevance. The Promise of Other Markets China’s exports to Latin…

Vietnam’s Secret Weapon: Agriculture

UncategorizedMarch 1, 2024390Views 0Likes 0Comments

In a tricky global economy, Vietnamese exports shrank in 2023, but the rising economic power managed to be one of the only countries to increase merchandise exports to China, thanks to a surprising surge in exports of fruits and vegetables, as well as rice, demonstrating the importance of export diversification. The Difficulties of 2023 The country of…

What’s Behind the High-Tech Trade Slump?

UncategorizedFebruary 16, 2024288Views 0Likes 0Comments

It’s not been an easy time for international trade, as a recent report co-authored by Trade Data Monitor and the World Intellectual Property Organization found. High-tech exports are set to decline by 4 percent in 2023, according to the TDM/WIPO analysis. Global and high-tech trade have soared and sunk like rollercoasters since 2019. After…

China Hikes Iron Ore, Copper Imports Amid Car Building Boom

UncategorizedJanuary 23, 2024465Views 0Likes 0Comments

In the somewhat gloomy December and annual China trade statistics released in the second week of January was buried a piece of data that hearkened back to the boom years of Chinese commodity consumption: China is buying a lot more iron ore and copper. In December, China boosted iron ore imports 11.1% year-on-year to 100.9…

The Future of EU-China Trade

UncategorizedDecember 21, 2023636Views 0Likes 0Comments

As European Union leaders gathered in Beijing Thursday, one of their demands for China was a more equal trading relationship. “China is the EU’s most important trading partner,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “But there are clear imbalances and differences that we must address.” Europe’s weak consumer economy is doing its part…

Trade Data Monitor’s Top 10 Trade Trends Going Into 2024

UncategorizedDecember 20, 2023954Views 0Likes 0Comments

It’s not an easy time for global trade--the roughly $25 trillion piece of the $105 trillion world economy. Protectionism is roaring in the U.S. and Europe, causing geopolitical tension with China. Inflation across most of the world has shrunk consumers’ wallets and imports, while deflation in China is also scaring businesses. Asian supply chains are…

TDM Data Used to Scrutinize Impact of Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

UncategorizedNovember 15, 2023637Views 0Likes 0Comments

Trade scholars in a recent paper used Trade Data Monitor data on steel and aluminum trade to gauge the impact of 2018-2019 protectionist measures on U.S. and European Union imports. The paper by Simon Evenett and Fernando Martin, published by the Center for European Policy Research, found that because the U.S. and European Union…

China Boosts Imports of Raw Materials by Double Digits

UncategorizedNovember 13, 2023820Views 0Likes 0Comments

China in October dramatically increased imports of fossil fuels, industrial metals and agricultural commodities, a run on raw materials that if sustained will have a major impact on prices and supply chains. China continued to increase its ferocious energy consumption, hiking imports of natural gas 120.1% year-on-year to 8.8 million tons, coal 23.3% to 36…

Chinese Trade Sputters as Global Demand Weakens

UncategorizedOctober 23, 2023764Views 0Likes 0Comments

U.S. and European Union policymakers have labored to cut inflation after lathering stimulus on their economies to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. The resulting higher interest rates are denting consumer demand, which is bad news for Chinese manufacturers who’ve been hoping that consumers from Prague to Portland can lift them out of their doldrums. Total exports…

U.S. #1 Food&Ag Exporter But Losing Ground to Rivals

UncategorizedSeptember 25, 2023735Views 0Likes 0Comments

As the deadline to renew the farm bill approaches on Sept. 30, the U.S. is still the world’s top food and agriculture exporter, but it’s lost a bit of ground this year to rivals. Overall, U.S. food and agriculture exports declined 10.9% to $69.1 billion in the first half of 2023. By comparison, #2 Brazil’s…

India is Bright Spot in Slumping Trade Numbers

UncategorizedSeptember 18, 2023608Views 0Likes 0Comments

Another monthly release of China trade statistics, another batch of data showing that rich-country consumers have stopped spending money, inflation is nibbling at budgets, businesses are worried about a recession, and everybody’s freaked out about a trade war. One exception to the gloom: China reported increases in both exports to and imports from India. The…

Trade Data Points to Lower Inflation

UncategorizedAugust 21, 2023563Views 0Likes 0Comments

For yet another month, China’s merchandise trade exports declined, falling 14.5% year-on-year in July to $281.8 billion. The drop was driven by a weaker economy and an ongoing realignment in global trade. Companies are seeking alternative manufacturing bases to China, to lower costs and temper political risk, and reducing their foreign direct investment that’s underpinned…

Amid Play for U.S. Steel, Buyers Face Supply Crisis, Trade Data Shows

UncategorizedAugust 16, 2023538Views 0Likes 0Comments

The ongoing corporate jousting for U.S. Steel has created another round of uncertainty for American industry. The fate of the venerable 122-year-old firm remains uncertain, but buyers of steel face a supply chain crisis, trade data suggests. The U.S. has fallen to fourth in the world in steelmaking, at around 86 million tons, behind China…

China Doubles Coal and Gas Imports as Global Trade Putters

UncategorizedJuly 27, 2023512Views 0Likes 0Comments

The world’s biggest exporter reported another month of dismal trade figures for June. Chinese exports declined 13% year-on-year in the month to $285.3 billion, and imports fell 6.9% to $214.7 billion. The decline was driven by a massive drop in consumer spending in the U.S. and Europe, caused by inflation, fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, and…

Vietnam’s Niche Export Sectors Highlight Complexity of Global Trade

UncategorizedJuly 27, 2023573Views 0Likes 0Comments

As global trade putters in 2023, because of weak consumer demand, lingering Covid fallout and protectionist tensions, the slackening has highlighted niche sectors in the global economy where trade is still robust. The upshot: We’re no longer living in a world where every consumer is buying more stuff and everything is made in China, or…

Chips Are Up: 10 Top Trade Trends in Semiconductors

UncategorizedJune 12, 2023988Views 0Likes 0Comments

The strategic geopolitical battle over semiconductors, the key ingredient in computers and phones, is ramping up, as the U.S., China and other countries boost investments in domestic production, protect their internal markets and aggressively monitor rivals’ capacities. As the U.S. and China disengage with each other’s most strategic supply chains, other countries, such as Germany…

China’s New Place in Global Trade: Number 1 Importer of Food&Ag

UncategorizedJune 12, 2023521Views 0Likes 0Comments

As expected, China reported lackluster trade numbers this week, signaling a possible recession in the U.S. and more trouble for the global economy. Chinese exports fell for the first time in three months, dropping 7.5% year-on-year to $283.5 billion. Imports dropped 4.5% to $217.7 billion. The World Bank this week said that the global economy…

China Export Growth To BRI Countries Booms Since 2012

UncategorizedMay 25, 2023495Views 0Likes 0Comments

In 2013 China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched by President Xi Jinping with a goal of increasing economic prosperity by improving China’s global connectivity. As of March 2022, there were 147 countries (1) participating in the BRI with China. As we approach the 10th anniversary, what is the impact on China trade as…

China Goes To Europe

UncategorizedMay 12, 2023407Views 0Likes 0Comments

There’s so much focus on the U.S.-China trade relationship and its frequent fireworks that it’s often forgotten that the European Union, still the world’s preeminent free-trade alliance, with 447 million consumers, is the better customer. In April, exports to the European Union increased 4.1% year-on-year to $44.7 billion, while exports to the U.S. dropped 6.2%…

Vietnamese Exports Slump But Its Consumers Are Buying Cars

UncategorizedMay 4, 2023466Views 0Likes 0Comments

The steep drop in Vietnam’s exports and imports during the first quarter of 2023 points to vulnerabilities in the country of around 100 million’s economy, as well as slumping factory orders and business confidence around the world. Vietnam’s quarterly exports fell 11.8% year-on-year to $79.3 billion in the first three months of 2023. Trade makes…

Electric Vehicles Are Boosting Global Trade

UncategorizedApril 14, 2023422Views 0Likes 0Comments

In what’s meant to be a bum year for the global economy, world commerce is getting a boost from automotive trade, especially in electric vehicles. Chinese exports of motor vehicles more than doubled in March, rising 123.8% year-on-year to $7.4 billion. A huge chunk of China’s auto industry has gone electric. In 2022, 44.7% of…

Why Global Trade in Rare Earth Elements is Growing and Diversifying

UncategorizedMarch 13, 2023394Views 0Likes 0Comments

Higher prices for rare-earth minerals and strategic support from the U.S. and other governments have sparked further investment, production, and international trade, diversifying supply for minerals that are essential to high-tech production. Rare earths elements, such as dysprosium, lanthanum and cerium, are 17 elements used as niche ingredients in magnets, batteries and catalytic converters. These…

Why China Is Hiking Imports From Latin America

UncategorizedMarch 10, 2023404Views 0Likes 0Comments

The global economy is being rewired by shifting geopolitics, changes in high-tech and renewable supply chains, and lower consumer demand in the U.S. and European Union. One major consequence of these changes: a slip in trade with China, the world’s top exporter, and number two importer, of goods and commodities. On Tuesday, China reported total…