Major countries in East Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan, and China, saw exports rise in the first quarter of 2026, thanks to strong shipments of semiconductors and power equipment, despite the oil price shock triggered by the Middle East war.
According to an analysis of government statistics by Maeil Business on Sunday, major East Asian manufacturing countries posted double-digit export growth in the first quarter.
Taiwan recorded the highest increase at 51.1 percent, followed by Korea at 37.7 percent, China at 13.6 percent and Japan at 10.5 percent.
Analysts said East Asian economies dominating global supply chains are benefiting as U.S. big tech companies ramp up AI investment, causing explosive demand for semiconductors, power equipment, batteries, and industrial machinery.
The trend continued in April, one month after the outbreak of the Middle East war.
Korea’s exports rose 48 percent in April, while China posted export growth of 14.1 percent, beating market expectations of 7-8 percent. China’s export growth slowed to the 1 percent range in March immediately after the war broke out, but rebounded sharply within a month.
Korea is enjoying a boom in AI memory semiconductors such as high bandwidth memory (HBM), while Taiwan’s advanced foundry sector and Japan’s semiconductor equipment and materials industries are also booming.
China is restructuring its export portfolio around electric infrastructure manufacturing, including batteries, solar power and power equipment. In March, China’s exports of new energy vehicles (NEVs) surged about 140 percent from a year earlier to a record 349,000 units.
In contrast, major European economies are showing relatively weak performance.
The European Union’s exports in January fell 5.1 percent from a year earlier. The flash reading of the Hamburg Commercial Bank Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for the 21 eurozone countries fell to 48.6 in April, signaling economic contraction. The decline reflected weakening demand and sharply rising prices following the war triggered by U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Germany, Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse, posted export growth of just 1.9 percent in March from a year earlier. The German Chambers of Industry and Commerce forecast German exports would effectively stagnate this year.
Analysts said Europe, with its heavy reliance on traditional manufacturing industries such as automobiles, chemicals and aviation, has been slower to integrate into AI- and semiconductor-centered advanced manufacturing supply chains. As a result, the economic gap with East Asia is widening despite the shared impact of high oil prices.
In a recent column, Reuters warned that persistently high energy costs and delays in AI and digital transformation are weakening competitiveness of German manufacturing, adding that the German economy risks falling into “permanent stagnation.”
Posted by Bursanich