China's prefabricated building exports rose to $4.3 billion in 2025 from $1.7 billion in 2020, with the U.S., Southeast Asia, Australia, and Western Europe as key markets, customs data show.
While that is just a fraction of China's massive $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, the industry's shift from domestic to foreign sales is emblematic of a post-pandemic export boom that worried Western capitals dub 'China shock 2.0'.
China's export juggernaut, which the West fears is gutting local industries and torching jobs, will dominate the agenda at a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.
Expectations for the meeting are modest, though, not least because Beijing has grown increasingly self-assured that no rival can match its industrial machine for scale and efficiency, demonstrating its ability to expand in foreign markets despite steeper tariffs.
For Sun, the fiercest competition comes not from foreign rivals but from the more than 1,000 prefab-home factories across China. Hengshui alone has around 30.
He is unfazed by the prospect of additional trade barriers, because other countries "genuinely have the demand" and "our production speed and efficiency right now are something no other country can match."
His firm builds a home in as little as 15 to 25 days and delivers it overseas within three months. Comparable homes produced locally in many markets often take far longer and cost more, he said.
China's export boom "is happening regardless of tariffs, geopolitical instability, logistics disruptions, oil prices and all sorts of political narratives," said Hao Dong, senior lecturer in management at the University of Southampton.
Perceptions of "Made in China" products are improving noticeably, he said.
"I cannot imagine anything that would effectively stop the trend, except for extremely radical developments such as wars," he added.
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