Prefabricated House Foreign Trade
China's foreign trade in prefabricated houses has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, emerging as a new growth point for 'Made in China' going global. The export scale, markets, and product types have continuously expanded, although it faces challenges such as certification barriers and localized service issues. The future prospects are promising.
Export Scale and Growth Rate
In the first half of 2026, China's export value of integrated houses reached $2.324 billion, a year-on-year increase of 47.9%. From 2015 to 2025, the export value of prefabricated buildings nearly tripled over a decade, with a growth rate of 45% in the first quarter of 2026. Guangdong's Dongguan Port and Shenzhen Port have become major export hubs. For example, in the first seven months of 2026, the Huangpu Customs supervised the export of modular houses worth 548 million yuan, a 7.3-fold increase year-on-year.
Core Advantages
Cost and Efficiency: Over 90% of the processes, including plumbing, electrical work, and interior decoration, are completed in the factory, leaving only 10% of the workload for on-site construction. This shortens the construction period to one-third to one-half of that of traditional buildings. For instance, a 63-module elderly care apartment project in the UK took only two weeks from shipment to hoisting completion. Price Competitiveness: The overall cost is only one-third to one-half of that of local construction overseas. Taking the US market as an example, the labor cost for a house of the same area is approximately $200,000, while the total landed cost of a Chinese prefabricated house, including transportation and installation, is about $28,700. Full Industry Chain Support: It covers design and R&D, intelligent production, ocean logistics, overseas installation, and other links, forming a standardized industrial product export model.
Main Markets and Products
The market distribution includes more than 20 countries and regions such as ASEAN, the UK, Australia, and the US, with the ASEAN market showing outstanding growth. Product types cover foldable prefabricated houses, steel-structure integrated modules, data center rooms, elderly care apartments, and staff dormitories. For example, a 40-foot expandable container house has a usable area of approximately 70 square meters and can be occupied once connected to water and electricity.
Challenges and Countermeasures
Certification Barriers: Compliance with standards such as the EU's CPR and the US's ICC-ES is required. Some enterprises face the issue of 'easy export of single modules but difficult certification for the entire series.' Localized Services: The supporting overseas installation and after-sales maintenance teams are weak, and brand premiums are lower than those of European and American manufacturers. Countermeasures: Technological upgrades (such as aligning green, low-carbon, earthquake-resistant, and heat-insulating performance with international standards); industrial optimization (promoting collaboration among design, production, and construction links to reduce costs); and standard generation (participating in the formulation of international standards to enhance voice).
Future Prospects
The global market size for modular buildings is expected to exceed $142.8 billion by 2030, and the demand for data centers and digital economy infrastructure will continue to drive China's export of prefabricated houses.
