After reopening in late February and early March, China's factories began an export blitz that is still gaining steam, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Tuesday. "Exports soared in July to their second-highest level ever, nearly matching the record-setting Christmas rush last December.”

"The country has grabbed a much larger share of global markets this summer from other manufacturing nations, entrenching a dominance in trade that could last long after the world begins to recover from the pandemic,”wrote the New York Times. 

China is showing its export machine cannot be stopped — not by the coronavirus and not by the Trump administration, said the report. "Its resilience lies not only in the country's low-cost, skilled labor and efficient infrastructure but also in a state-controlled banking system that has been offering small and large businesses extra loans to cope with the pandemic."

The pandemic has also found China better placed than other exporting nations. It is making what the world's hospitals and housebound families need right now: personal protection gear, home improvement products and lots of consumer electronics, it said.

"At the same time, demand has withered for many big-ticket items exported by the United States and Europe, like Boeing and Airbus jets. And with most economies except China's now mired in recessions, demand has also faltered for the commodities that most developing countries export, particularly oil."

Some factories elsewhere closed temporarily during the spring because of coronavirus lockdowns or supply chain disruptions linked to the pandemic. "China's own share of global exports dipped somewhat in the January to March quarter, to 11 percent, as it was battling the virus," the report said.

"But China now appears strong in exports across many sectors, even as the cost of its imports is likely to stay low for months to come. China's trade surplus — when the value of its exports exceeds that of its imports — has ballooned this summer, especially in July," it said.

China's exports in July rose by 7.2 percent to 237.6 billion U.S. dollars, strongly beating expectations, and imports saw a slight decline of 1.4 percent year on year to 175.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to the General Administration of Customs.

(Cover: VCG)