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Silver Bullet: A Special Report on Mining and Metals Trade in Latin America

UncategorizedNovember 12, 202540Views 0Likes 0Comments

Why China is Still Buying If you’re pessimistic about global trade, you’ve likely been paying too much attention to the Beijing-Washington trade spat. The headline number: In September, Chinese exports to the U.S. declined 27% year-on-year. However, even including that number, China’s monthly exports increased 8.3% year-on-year to $328.6 billion. The truth is that there…

Chinese Exports Down 1.1% in October

UncategorizedNovember 12, 202561Views 0Likes 0Comments

The Chinese export juggernaut finally started to show the impact of protectionism and weaker Western consumer markets in October. A week after Presidents Trump and Xi settled a new trade deal that cut tariffs and put off their trade war for a year, China reported a 1.1% year-on-year drop in exports to $305.3 billion. To…

Is Global Trade Too Strong for Tariffs?

UncategorizedOctober 15, 2025242Views 0Likes 0Comments

Global Trade Can Take a Punch This month, markets have swerved to adjust to the threat of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. Yet, global trade keeps finding a way. In September, although shipments to the U.S. plummeted, China’s monthly exports increased 8.3% year-on-year to $328.6 billion. One way of looking at the stubborn performance…

Casualties of the U.S.-China Trade War: 36 Million Phones

UncategorizedSeptember 17, 2025429Views 0Likes 0Comments

Please Dial a New Number As U.S. and Chinese negotiators try to find a way out of tariff gridlock, one thing is certain: The smartphone supply chain has shifted significantly, upending the practices and expectations of manufacturers, logistics firms, and retailers. China’s exports of mobile phone fell 11.6% year-on-year in August to 60.8 million sets.…

Global Coal Trade is Finally Faltering

UncategorizedAugust 25, 2025612Views 0Likes 0Comments

China Cuts Coal Imports For years, as governments around the world embraced clean energy technology, coal trade held steady because China was still buying. As the rest of the world turned away from coal, China boosted imports to power its booming electrification, and a vibrant new industry of electric vehicles and batteries. In 2024, it…

China Ramps Up Exports to Vietnam Amid Transshipment Worries

UncategorizedAugust 7, 2025709Views 1Like 0Comments

Made in Vietnam (or China) At a time when trade officials around the world are closely watching Vietnam’s evolving place in the global trading system, Chinese exports to the new Asian economic power in June boomed 23.8% year-on-year to $16.3 billion. The U.S.-China trade war has pushed attention of U.S. trade negotiators toward manufacturing powers…

China Reconfigures Export Markets as Shipments to U.S. Plummet

UncategorizedJune 19, 2025883Views 1Like 0Comments

U.S. Market Collapsing For China As Americans and Chinese officials scrambled to forge new politically acceptable trade terms, China reported a pandemic-level decline in exports to the U.S. Chinese shipments to the U.S. fell 34.4% year-on-year in May to $28.8 billion, the steepest drop since Covid-19 upended global trade in February 2020. Chinese imports from…

How to Think About Tariffs

UncategorizedMay 19, 20251KViews 1Like 0Comments

In the new age of trade geopolitics, the only certainty is uncertainty. What we can do at Trade Data Monitor is take an educated look at trade statistics that measure what’s leaving and entering ports, crossing oceans, and flying through the air. To be sure, the scenario is less than rosy. The World Trade Organization…

Chinese Exports to U.S. Plunge Along With Smartphone Shipments

UncategorizedMay 19, 2025982Views 1Like 0Comments

First Impact of U.S. Tariffs Chinese shipments to the U.S. plummeted 21% year-on-year in April as the impact of Washington’s new import tariffs started to punish the world’s largest exporter. However, as Beijing was quick to point out, China compensated by selling more to its economic partners in Southeast Asia. In a striking coincidence, Chinese…

China Hikes Oil & Gas Imports

UncategorizedApril 23, 2025934Views 1Like 0Comments

China’s Economy When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the move was seen as an essential turboboost to a huge but developing country. Without access to global markets, there was no way for China to become the greatest exporter the world has ever seen. Now, as the backlash to that growth turns into…

Vietnam Boosting Imports from China

UncategorizedApril 3, 20251KViews 1Like 0Comments

Vietnam Pivots Back to Asia Vietnam, one of the world’s most dynamic economies, now faces one of its most important challenges of this century as it faces protectionist headwinds and tepid consumer economies in the U.S. and Europe. So far, its formidable export-based economy has seemed up to the task. In 2024, overall exports rose…

Tech Sector Resilient as Chinese Imports Fall Steeply

UncategorizedMarch 12, 2025950Views 0Likes 0Comments

Rocky Waters It’s a perilous time for the global trading system. President Trump has imposed an across-the-board tariff of 20%, in two tranches of 10%, on U.S. imports of Chinese goods. There are threats of more action, on microchips, drugs, and automobiles. Lesser degrees of protectionism in Europe, Canada and elsewhere are also denting confidence…

Record Chinese Global Surplus Neared $1 Trillion in 2024

UncategorizedJanuary 27, 20252KViews 1Like 0Comments

The Trillion-Dollar Surplus In 2024, China recorded the biggest global trade surplus in economic history at $992 billion, according to preliminary data released Monday by Beijing. The gap, beating the previous record of $838 billion in 2022, is almost certainly unsustainable. Amid worsening relations with the U.S., Europe and Canada, it may never pass the…

U.S. Exporters Worry about Impact of Port Strikes

UncategorizedJanuary 7, 20251KViews 0Likes 0Comments

As we inch closer to January 15th to avoid a second strike for U.S. dock workers, Trade Data Monitor (TDM) examines what industries may be most impacted. The deadline to come to an agreement is just five days before the new administration takes office. Across multiple industries, companies and trade associations are urging for the…

Top 10 Trade Trends for 2025

UncategorizedDecember 16, 20242KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The focus of the global trade world is, rightly, on President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming U.S. administration debating and deciding how far Washington will go in enacting new import tariffs and sanctions. How high will the tariff wall go? Will the USMCA be renegotiated? Which industries will be exempted from the new protectionism? There…

Chinese Demand Falters as Imports Decline

UncategorizedDecember 16, 20241KViews 1Like 0Comments

Trade in a Time of Geopolitical Adjustment The focus of the global trade world is, rightly, on President-elect Donald Trump and the U.S. debating and deciding how far they’ll go in enacting new protectionist measures. But an issue that could upend geopolitics -- with unintended consequences that will affect big issues like war and peace,…

Steel Trade Trends in 2025

UncategorizedNovember 15, 20242KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Shake-up in Global Steel The world of steel trade is in for a shake-up. New climate rules in Europe, the prospect of ramped-up U.S. tariffs on steel and an excess of Chinese steel imports mean companies around the world must calibrate their trade strategies in 2024. With the U.S. locked in protectionism and the…

Trump Election Gooses Trade– Before Tariffs Hit

UncategorizedNovember 7, 20241KViews 1Like 0Comments

This week’s election of Donald Trump as the U.S.’s 47th president is almost certainly likely to lead to another trade war with China, and further tariffs on American imports. During the campaign, Trump said his favorite word was tariff and floated a universal 10% tariff and specific duties on Chinese imports as high as 60%.…

China Finally Affected by Protectionist Tariffs

UncategorizedOctober 23, 20241KViews 1Like 0Comments

September Rain China posted lackluster trade figures in September, highlighting how it might become slowly less reliant on global commerce as other major economies retrench. Chinese exports increased 2.4% year-on-year, below economists’ expectations of around 6%, to $303.7 billion, while imports increased only 0.3% to $222 billon. The 2024 Boom For most of 2024, Chinese…

50 U.S. States Have 50 Trade Economies

UncategorizedSeptember 24, 20242KViews 1Like 0Comments

The politics of trade in the U.S. have gotten complicated during this century, mainly because deindustrialization in the Rust Belt has cost so many factories and jobs. The free trade consensus of the 1990s that led to NAFTA and China joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 is dead. But it shouldn’t be lost on…

Don’t Overlook Germany’s Trade Economy

UncategorizedSeptember 19, 20242KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The conversation about global trade often leaves out the world’s fourth biggest economy and third top exporter and importer, but Germany is poised to play an even bigger role this decade as China and the U.S. remain locked in a trade war. In August, Chinese exports to Germany jumped a whopping 21.5% to $10.1 billion.…

It’s a Good Summer for Trade But China Ag Imports Fell In July

UncategorizedAugust 12, 20242KViews 1Like 0Comments

During a summer that’s been a boon for free trade despite a looming escalation in trade wars, and the possibility of a second Trump administration, China’s agricultural imports dropped 4.9% year-on-year in July to $17.8 billion. The trend reflects China’s regulatory practices, strategic protectionism, and shifting demographics. China has blocked some U.S. beef imports because of…

China Hikes Metal Exports Amid Record Surplus

UncategorizedJuly 15, 20242KViews 1Like 0Comments

As the business world girds for a fresh wave of trade protectionism and the possibility of a second Trump administration, China bumped up exports of two essential metals. In June, its shipments of steel products increased 20.8% year-on-year by quantity to 8.7 million tons and 3.8% by value to $6.8 billion. Its shipments of unwrought…

How Tariffs Are Reshuffling EV Trade

UncategorizedJuly 11, 20242KViews 1Like 0Comments

Age of the EV We’re entering the age of the electric vehicle, and global trade is keeping pace. Around 20% of all cars bought in the world in 2023, a total of almost 14 million, were electric, and there are now 40 million on the road, according to the International Energy Agency. Total trade in…