Chinese 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-made magnificence equipment are surging throughout the United States.
While friction over hovering Chinese exports of high-profile gadgets such as vehicles and batteries varieties 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,” mentioned Joe Wu, an exporter within the central metropolis of Xuchang, generally known as China’s wig capital, who expects his gross sales to develop 40% this yr, pushed closely by US consumers drawn by the apps TikTookay 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 knowledge reveals, 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 typical ones, comparable to laptop components, scooters or plastic items.
While there isn’t any customs knowledge for synthetic nails, that are categorised as plastic merchandise, producers say trade is booming.
Zhang Da, the proprietor of a 200-worker press-on nail manufacturing facility within the japanese county of Donghai, says exports climbed to 70% of whole turnover this yr from 20% late in 2025, with US gross sales making up a big chunk.
A PROBLEM FOR THE WORLD?
The pattern demonstrates that Beijing occupies “a singular historic place” in utilizing scale and product upgrades to dominate world financial hubs in each superior and decrease value-added items, mentioned Dan Wang, the China director of Eurasia Group.
“It is not only competing with the commercial merchandise of 1 or two nations, it’s competing with all industrial merchandise globally,” Wang mentioned, a state of affairs that offered an issue for different nations, fairly than China.
“It goes to be very tough to see China’s benefit changed for a few years to come back.”
Chinese exporters of magnificence equipment have capitalised on the proliferation of influencers and celebrities on social media who regularly change wigs and manicures.
To accomplish that, Chinese manufacturing centres have relied on labour forces that might be arduous to copy elsewhere — in Xuchang alone, for instance, about 300,000 of a inhabitants of 4.4 million work within the hair business, state media mentioned.
Donghai, a county of 1 million folks within the japanese metropolis of Lianyungang, had practically 25,000 press-on nail companies.
