Page 38 - EngineerIT August-September 2025

MANUFACTURING TRENDS

China vs the West: the factory floor

that reshaped the world

Manufacturing might
The question lingered China now commands roughly 29–32% of global manufacturing value-added
— a meteoric rise from under 5% in the mid-1990s. In 2023 its share was 29%,
throughout the 1990s
exceeding the combined output of the US, Japan, Germany and India.
and the 2000s: would
Meanwhile, the US has slipped to around 17% and Europe as a bloc has
China catch up to the
stagnated at about 16%.
West? The answer today
Sources:
is starker. It hasn’t just
1. https://chinapower.csis.org/tracker/china-manufacturing
caught up. On the 2. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-chart-shows-the-dramatic-shift-in-global-
manufacturing-over-30-years-the-u-s-isnt-at-the-top-37b6f62b
world’s factory floor, 3. https://www.statista.com/chart/20858/top-10-countries-by-share-of-global-
manufacturing-output)
China has pulled ahead
— in cars, in clean tech

and in sheer industrial
output. Some may
argue that the West still

holds the cutting edge
of research and frontier
tech, but in weight and

scale, the balance has
shifted into the red and
yellow.

38 | EngineerIT August/September 2025