Report: The electronics industry accounts for 20% of global trade volume, with semiconductor and other components trade exceeding end products.

2025/07/30

TechNews Technology News
July 11, 2025
By Lin Yurou

The Global Electronics Association recently released the report "Connecting the World: Global Electronics Trade in a Turbulent Era," finding that the scale of component trade has surpassed that of end products. Cross-border trade in components such as semiconductors, connectors, and batteries has exceeded US$2.5 trillion, exceeding the US$2 trillion for end electronic products like mobile phones and laptops.

In other words, the total trade value of electronic raw materials has surpassed that of end products, demonstrating the high complexity, sophistication, and specialized division of labor in today's electronics manufacturing.

Furthermore, the electronics industry's total merchandise trade volume reached US$4.5 trillion in 2023, accounting for over 20% of global merchandise trade and already one-fifth of global trade volume today. In comparison, the automotive industry, often considered to have a highly transnational supply chain, contributed only approximately US$1.8 trillion to global trade in the same year.

Looking at countries by country, China's imports of electronic components will reach $630 billion in 2023, exceeding the combined value of the United States, the European Union, and Singapore, the three largest component importers. This highlights the high dependence of even the world's largest exporter of electronic end products on global component supplies. Vietnam and India, the fastest-growing exporters of electronic end products, are also the fastest-growing importers of electronic components.

From 2017 to 2023, India's electronic component imports grew by 122%, while Vietnam's grew by 83%. After China, the European Union and the United States are the world's largest exporters of electronic end products and, after China, the second-largest importers of electronic components.

The Global Electronics Association points out that the rapid rise of Vietnam, India, and Mexico as end-product assembly hubs in the electronics manufacturing sector is not due to complete vertical integration of the supply chain, but rather to their successful integration into the global division of labor production network. In other words, trade is currently experiencing "diversification" rather than "decoupling."

Intra-Asian trade accounts for 88% of Asia's electronic component imports and 69% of its electronic end product imports, demonstrating intensive regional industrial integration rather than a supply chain disruption. In the United States, tariffs on Chinese goods have altered sourcing patterns but have not truly severed reliance on global components. Instead, they have diverted trade toward alternative partners.

For emerging economies primarily engaged in end product assembly, such as India, the key to continuously improving production capacity and competitiveness lies in expanding their electronic component imports. The resilience of the upstream supply chain directly impacts a country's ability to expand production and compete globally. Economies must closely integrate their industrial policies with international sourcing strategies for key components to enhance global competitiveness.

The Global Electronics Association's "Electronics Industry Trade Flows Research Project" covers approximately 150 economies and meticulously tracks electronic raw materials and end products. All data is sourced from the United Nations Comtrade database, providing a consistent and comprehensive analytical basis despite the varying release schedules of individual countries.

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