Chinese language magnificence product exporters are sitting fairly regardless of US commerce dispute
By Claire Fu, Chenxi Yang and Nicoco Chan
SINGAPORE/LIANYUNGANG, China, Sept 23 (Reuters) – From pre-bleached straight hair wigs to wavy clipped extensions and blinged-out coffin-shaped nails, gross sales of Chinese language-made magnificence equipment are surging throughout the US.
Whereas friction over hovering Chinese language exports of high-profile objects such as vehicles and batteries types the backdrop to this week’s presidential summit, the growth within the non-strategic magnificence sector underlines China’s manufacturing prowess.
“This market is rising,” stated Joe Wu, an exporter within the central metropolis of Xuchang, often called China’s wig capital, who expects his gross sales to develop 40% this 12 months, pushed closely by US patrons drawn by means of the apps TikTok and Instagram.
China’s US exports of hair merchandise rose 12.4% year-on-year to $1.3 billion within the first half of 2026, customs information exhibits, with shipments on observe to beat 2025’s full-year determine of $2.3 billion.
It is without doubt one of the quickest rising export classes alongside extra standard ones, akin to laptop components, scooters or plastic items.
Whereas there isn’t any customs information for synthetic nails, that are categorised as plastic merchandise, producers say enterprise is booming.
Zhang Da, the proprietor of a 200-worker press-on nail manufacturing unit within the jap county of Donghai, says exports climbed to 70% of whole income this 12 months from 20% late in 2025, with US gross sales making up a big chunk.
A PROBLEM FOR THE WORLD?
The development demonstrates that Beijing occupies “a singular historic place” in utilizing scale and product upgrades to dominate international markets in each superior and decrease value-added items, stated Dan Wang, the China director of Eurasia Group.
“It isn’t simply competing with the commercial merchandise of 1 or two international locations, it’s competing with all industrial merchandise globally,” Wang stated, a situation that offered an issue for different international locations, reasonably than China.
“It’s going to be very tough to see China’s benefit changed for a few years to come back.”
Chinese language exporters of magnificence equipment have capitalised on the proliferation of influencers and celebrities on social media who steadily change wigs and manicures.
To take action, Chinese language manufacturing centres have relied on labour forces that will be laborious to duplicate elsewhere — in Xuchang alone, for instance, about 300,000 of a inhabitants of 4.4 million work within the hair trade, state media stated.
Donghai, a county of 1 million folks within the jap metropolis of Lianyungang, had almost 25,000 press-on nail companies.
