For decades, the global image of Chinese trade was synonymous with massive container ships loaded with footwear, bags and furniture. However, a profound structural shift is under way. Having conquered the world of physical goods, China is now rapidly ascending the industrial chain as an emerging exporter of manufacturing technology. In 2025, the country’s exports of telecoms, computer and information services reached CNY808 billion, marking a robust 13% year-on-year increase. It far outpaced export growth in traditional goods, such as footwear, which fell 9% to USD46 billion in the same period, or handbags and suitcases, which saw a collective export decline of 13% to USD30 billion, according to official data. “China’s new trade front with the world is the export of services such as information and communication technology, construction management, engineering services, data analytics and research and development,” wrote Bank of America Chief Market Strategist Joseph Quinlan in an article published recently in the Financial Times.
Guangzhou, Guangdong province-based iRootech is among the growing number of Chinese companies that export its industrial computer vision and artificial intelligence technology. It secured its first foreign client, German concrete machinery maker Putzmeister, in 2017, and has since worked with thousands of companies overseas, said Global Business Manager Xiao Tingting. It developed a maintenance platform that can remotely manage concrete equipment and predict future malfunctions using artificial intelligence (AI). As a result, it helped the German firm, which does business in more than 30 countries, reduce travel costs related to after-sales service by 25%. “We not only help our clients use industrial AI to manage their equipment more intelligently, we also help them identify an entirely new revenue source,” Xiao said, referring to a 10% revenue increase that was achieved when Putzmeister gave customers the option of paying for the remote monitoring service.
Founded in 2016 and backed by China’s heavy equipment leader Sany Group, iRootech moved its headquarters to Guangzhou from Changsha, the capital of the Hunan province, two years later. “Our development has benefited from the systematic support of Guangdong province’s manufacturing foundation,” iRootech said. Guangdong has long been China’s manufacturing hub, where revenues from major industrial enterprises have topped all other Chinese provinces for years. iRootech saw “a significant increase” in overseas orders in 2023, which accounted for more than half of the company’s total contract value, Xiao told Xinhua News Agency in 2024. Without offering an updated breakdown on its international orders, Xiao told the South China Morning Post that the firm’s footprint now covered more than 100 markets mainly in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
There have been similar cases. German pump and valve producer KSB has a subsidiary in China, which develops AI-powered manufacturing technology, that is now being “reverse exported” to Germany, according to Chinese media Yicai. The Chinese subsidiary has developed a machine failure testing system, which has completed EU standard certification. The company planned to bring the product to the German market in the second half of this year, said He Jun, Regional Executive Officer of KSB Group Asia North, according to Yicai. Chinese AI vision developer Hefei Taihe Intelligent applies deep learning to the sorting of nuts. Showcasing its technology at the Spring session of the Canton Fair, China’s landmark bi-annual trade fair, the company received “a lot of inquiries from visitors from major nut-producing regions, such as India and Africa”, said Public Relations Director Hu Xingxing.
At the Canton Fair, over one third of the exhibiting companies had transitioned from merely “exporting products” to “exporting products plus services”, according to estimates by Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald. In terms of exporting digitally delivered services, China ranked sixth last year, up from 11th a decade earlier, overtaking countries like Japan, France and Switzerland, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO), as reported by the South China Morning Post.
