• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • China Tops the United States in IT Exports, Says OECD

    January 3, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    A chilling but not unexpected statistic has just emerged from a report the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: China was in 2004 the biggest exporter of information technology, surpassing the United States for the first time.

    IBM’s sale of its PC business to Lenovo Group last year certainly helped buoy the Chinese market for computers and communications in the 2005 data, but the OECD, which is a Paris-based organization of the biggest economies in the world that was founded over 40 years ago, indicates that the sale to Lenovo will not hardly register in the growth the Chinese manufacturers of IT gear will see in 2005.

    According to the report, China exported $180 billion in information and communication technology (ICT) in 2004, growing by 46 percent, compared to the United States, which had $149 billion in exports and only 12 percent growth. When imports and exports are added together, China’s share of the worldwide ICT market came to $329 billion in 2004, up 41 percent. The United States saw its combined ICT gear (imports and exports together) rise by 25 percent to $375 billion. While the OECD didn’t do the math, the U.S. had increased its ICT imports by a lot: in fact, IT imports were up 38 percent to $226 billion. The OECD says that Asian manufacturers of ICT products are sourcing more and more of their components from regional suppliers instead of European and U.S. suppliers. Moreover, China has an ICT trade surplus of $34 billion with the U.S. and $27 billion with the members of the European Union. The OECD data shows that the Chinese missed the dot-com bubble, but that country may be working on its own version of that bubble right now. China’s exports of ICT gear in 2004 almost match the peak exports for the U.S. in 2000, in fact, and the linear growth the Chinese market is seeing between 2001 and 2004 doesn’t seem to be slackening at all. If present conditions persist (and I can read a graph) imports of Chinese ICT gear could hit $200 billion in 2005 and exports could surpass $250 billion.

    It is amazing to note that China’s total ICT market (imports plus exports) was a mere $35 billion in 1996, which is when the U.S. had a market that was over six times larger at $230 billion.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 1 -- January 3, 2006

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: The Great i5/OS Job Hunt Properly Placed Procedures

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 15 Issue: 1

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM Makes Bowstreet, Micromuse Buys
    • China Tops the United States in IT Exports, Says OECD
    • SSA Sales Come in as Expected in Q1, Profits Squeezed by Acquisitions
    • Lawson, Intentia Extend Merger Deadline to April 30
    • Eclipse Web Tools Platform Moves Forward with New Release
    • IBM Makes Bowstreet, Micromuse Buys
    • Looks Like iSeries Announcements Coming in Late February
    • As I See It: Balance
    • What’s in Store for 2006? The iSeries Community Predicts
    • Waiting for Linux to Pull Its Own Weight on the iSeries

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
    • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
    • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
    • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
    • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
    • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
    • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
    • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle