Report: The global manufacturing landscape shows an increasingly evident trend of "South rising and North declining"

China News Service, Beijing, April 2 — Reporter Liu Liang from the China Electronic Information Industry Development Institute, commonly known as “CCID Research Institute,” released a report in Beijing stating that over the past 20 years, the distribution pattern of global manufacturing value-added has shown a “south rising, north declining” trend. The share of emerging economies and developing countries in the global market has continued to increase, while that of developed economies has steadily declined.

The “Global Industrialization Development Report 2025 — The Vision of a New Generation of Industrialization” was released on the same day at the 2026 CCID Forum. Analyzing the new map of global industrialization, the report pointed out that emerging economies are becoming a major driving force for global industrial growth. Their rapid rise in high-tech exports has injected new momentum into global industrial expansion.

The report shows that in 2023, emerging economies and developing countries accounted for 53.1% of the global manufacturing value-added, surpassing developed countries for the first time. China, as a leader among emerging economies, has maintained a stable global share of about 25% in high-tech product exports.

At the same time, there is a clear internal differentiation in industrial productivity among emerging economies. Zhang Li, director of CCID Research Institute, explained that China has become a leader driven by industrial upgrading and productivity leaps; Vietnam and India rely on cost advantages but lag in upgrading pace; Thailand’s industrial productivity has shown a fluctuating trend, first declining then rising.

The industrialization landscape of developed countries has also changed significantly. The report indicates that over the past 20 years, the global share of manufacturing in European manufacturing centers represented by Germany, Italy, and France has fallen from 18.7% to 12.4%; Japan’s decline trend is also quite evident. In contrast, the United States has seen a recovery in its share.

Zhang Li introduced that the U.S. manufacturing share has continuously declined from about 22% in 2005 to a historic low of 15% in 2021, but rebounded to 17.3% in 2024. Japan’s share has continued to shrink, falling to about 5% in 2024, nearly 60% less than in 2005; Germany’s share has stabilized around 5% in recent years, but its industrial competitiveness remains weak. (End)

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