China's Got More Competition Now as Info-Tech Exporter to the U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- China’s still ahead of the pack as a supplier of information technology to the U.S., but the gap is starting to narrow.

Equipment that can process data faster and in larger volumes is key to innovation and productivity. The U.S. has been getting more of it from China than the next eight biggest exporters combined. But the latest data suggests that won’t be the case for long, as the U.S.-China trade war drags on.

Chinese sales to the U.S. in this category fell by $12.4 billion in the first four months of 2019, to an eight-year low of $35.3 billion -- though they’re still three times higher than the second-biggest supplier, Mexico.

Malaysia and Japan also saw a slip in their exports of advanced equipment to the U.S., while the biggest increases came from Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.