Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-07-23 Origin: Site
In May 2026, US President Trump resumed his visit to China and held a historic Beijing summit with Chinese leaders. This high-level meeting has sent a signal of "seeking local pragmatic cooperation in competition" in the long-standing friction between China and the United States. Although the confrontation between the two sides in the fields of intellectual property, geopolitics, and core technologies remains sharp, the concept of dialogue mechanisms such as the China US Trade Commission has brought a glimmer of hope for tariff adjustments and trade flow reshaping in non sensitive traditional manufacturing sectors.
In recent years, due to the tariff friction between China and the United States and the adjustment of supply chain policies, the export of Chinese lighting products to the United States has faced significant external pressure. The high tariff barriers and supply chain diversion pressure during Trump's first and second terms have led Chinese lighting companies to embark on a cyclical reshaping of their exports to the United States. Combining the construction of various dialogue mechanisms between the two countries and analyzing the evolution of export data in recent years can help us objectively assess the current pressure situation in the industry and provide reference for the structural adjustment of lighting foreign trade enterprises.
A．Looking at the overall trend and multidimensional pressures, the cyclical fluctuations of exports to the United States in recent years
From 2022 to 2025, the overall export of Chinese lighting products to the United States will show a transition from platform period fluctuations to deep bottoming and rational return. The prolonged policy of imposing tariffs on China by the United States has completely squeezed out artificially high external demand, and market demand is returning to the true fundamentals of destocking and diversified supply chain layout in the United States.
According to the total export amount statistics from customs:
In 2022, the total export value to the United States reached 15.225 billion US dollars, benefiting from the residual warmth of overseas consumption recovery in the later stage of the epidemic, still at a stage high. In 2023, the total amount fell to 12.817 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 15.8%. The strong interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve has led to a cooling of the US real estate market, directly weakening end consumer demand. In 2024, the total amount was 12.693 billion US dollars, a slight decrease of 0.96% year-on-year, forming a short-term pressure balance platform at the macro level. In 2025, with increasing uncertainty and high inflation leading to a contraction in consumer power, the total export value further bottomed out to 9.743 billion US dollars, a significant year-on-year decline of 23.2%.
Monthly Trends in 2025 and Preliminary Trends in 2026
In the first half of 2025, except for a pulse like rebound of 21.1% year-on-year due to centralized customs clearance after the Spring Festival in March, most months showed double-digit deep declines, with a year-on-year decrease of 29.1% in February, 27.6% in April, and 36.5% in May. In the second half of the year, the year-on-year decline from September to December remained stable between -30% and -36%.
Entering 2026, geopolitical conflicts will have a direct impact on global logistics
In January, the export value was 884 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 20.6%, continuing the sluggish trend. In February, the export value was 687 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 23.5%. Due to the sudden escalation of the situation in the Middle East, foreign trade enterprises predict that sea freight rates will skyrocket in the later period, triggering a brief wave of early shipment rush. In March, the export value was 503 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 48.4%. With the full-scale outbreak of the US Iran War, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, Brent crude oil skyrocketed to over $120, and global shipping logistics were severely paralyzed, resulting in a devastating blow to exports to the United States. In April, the export value was 779 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%. As the supply chain logistics gradually opens up emergency detours, the decline has significantly narrowed, reflecting the strong resilience and repair ability of China's lighting industry chain.
B．In 2025, the performance of various provinces shows high coastal concentration and local regional variability
In the overall adjustment of exports to the United States, although the coastal traditional lighting manufacturing provinces have suffered a total loss, they still firmly occupy an absolute dominant position; However, some central and western provinces, as well as border provinces, have shown a more obvious trend of counter trend growth due to specific cross-border e-commerce structures, bonded zone transfers, or policy dividends.
From the ranking of provinces, Guangdong Province's export value of 4.463 billion US dollars and Zhejiang Province's export value of 2.056 billion US dollars constitute the first tier of a fault line, with the total amount of the two provinces accounting for more than half of the country's exports to the United States.
However, affected by US tariffs and the real estate cycle, the top five coastal provinces recorded double-digit negative growth across the board: Guangdong decreased by 21.9% year-on-year, Zhejiang decreased by 17.7%, Shandong decreased by 37.3%, Jiangsu decreased by 27.6%, and Fujian decreased by 35.8%.
On the contrary, some regions have achieved a counter trend upward trend with a low base: Hainan Province's export value was 17.72 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 2139.6%; The export value of Gansu Province was 2.39 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 837.9%. In addition, Xinjiang saw a year-on-year growth of 74.8%, Inner Mongolia saw a year-on-year growth of 81.9%, and Shanxi saw a year-on-year growth of 196.1%, achieving a counter trend upward trend despite a low base.
