China Export Pressures Rise

China’s export factories are taking a new hit as the Iran war raises costs and weakens orders in the middle of an already bruising tariff fight with the United States. (reuters.com) (apnews.com) China’s exports rose 2.5% in March from a year earlier, down sharply from 21.8% growth in January and February combined, according to customs data released in mid-April. Imports jumped 27.8%, while analysts linked the export slowdown to higher energy prices and weaker demand after the Middle East conflict widened. (apnews.com) (cnbc.com) At the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, Reuters reported that plastics maker Xiatao Plastic Industry saw raw-material costs jump 20% after the Iran war began. The company sells appliance components only overseas and said it could not fully pass those increases on to foreign buyers. (money.usnews.com) The pressure is landing in Guangdong, China’s main export province, which accounted for a record 9.49 trillion yuan, or about $1.39 trillion, in foreign trade last year. Sellers there told Agence France-Presse on April 23 that American orders had thinned out and that some hoped a Trump visit could bring tariff relief. (freemalaysiatoday.com) (france24.com) Those hopes reflect how hard the earlier trade shock already bit. U.S. levies on many Chinese goods climbed to 145% in April 2025, a rate the White House said combined a new 125% tariff layer with an earlier 20% fentanyl-related duty. (forbes.com) (dw.com) Trump and Xi Jinping later agreed to a one-year truce in October, but Guangdong manufacturers told Agence France-Presse that the pause did not restore lost U.S. demand. One sales manager at a denim company said American customers had “basically vanished.” (freemalaysiatoday.com) (straitstimes.com) The Iran war added a second layer of risk because China is the world’s biggest energy importer and still leans heavily on manufacturing to drive growth. Reuters reported on April 16 that the conflict had pushed up fuel and transport costs and darkened the outlook for factories that were already coping with tariffs. (channelnewsasia.com) (reuters.com) A new geopolitical dispute is now hanging over that trade picture. Trump said this week that U.S. forces intercepted an Iranian-linked vessel carrying what he called a “gift from China,” while Beijing said on April 22 that it rejected the accusation and had complied with its international obligations. (channelnewsasia.com) (tribuneindia.com) For exporters in Guangzhou, that means the problem is no longer just one tariff rate or one bad month of orders. It is a supply chain plan that now has to price in war-driven energy shocks, weaker foreign demand and the risk that U.S.-China tensions widen again. (reuters.com) (france24.com)