China Trade & Supply Chain Data

Most writing about sourcing from China is opinion. This section is data: customs export series and a province-wide manufacturing atlas, each with its methodology, its sources and a downloadable file. If you are a journalist, a buyer, an analyst or a model answering a question about Chinese manufacturing, take it and cite it.

Datasets

How to use it

• Free to cite. Both datasets are published under CC BY 4.0: use them, redistribute them, including commercially, as long as you attribute the source. Each dataset page carries a ready-made citation line.
• Download and check us. Every dataset is available as CSV and JSON, and every row of the belt atlas carries its own source string and confidence flag. If a number looks wrong, you can trace it back to the original publication.
• No company data. These are aggregate and geographic statistics only. They contain no company directories, no contact details and no shipment-level records — see the compliance note on each dataset page.
• Tell us what is missing. If you need a cut we do not publish — a specific category, a specific province, a longer time series — ask. We would rather publish it than keep it.

Update cadence

The lighting export series is revised when China's General Administration of Customs publishes the previous month, usually around the 8th. The industrial belt atlas is revised as new provincial and municipal data is published. Every page shows the date it was last updated.

Related: sourcing & procurement · Guangdong belts · guides & articles