As China's domestic building materials and home furnishing sectors enter a stock competition phase, the ASEAN market, backed by the sustained high-growth dividend in its construction industry, has become the core strategic hub for Chinese building materials enterprises to expand overseas.
    From 2020 to 2024, China's exports of decoration materials to ASEAN surged from 38 billion yuan to 127 billion yuan, equivalent to approximately ‌17.6 billion US dollars‌ at the average annual exchange rate, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.6% — far outpacing the average growth rate of global building materials trade in the same period. The market structure and growth logic are undergoing profound changes.

Rising Demand for High-end Construction Projects 
The demand stratification characteristics of the current ASEAN building materials market are very distinct: Vietnam, as an export-driven manufacturing hub, has core demand for supporting categories such as panels and woodworking machinery to underpin the upgrading of its furniture export industrial chain. Malaysia, leveraging its identity as an RCEP member state, serves as a natural hub for Chinese building materials to radiate across the entire ASEAN market, with rapidly rising demand for high-end construction projects and smart home. 
    More than 90% of Indonesia's building materials rely on imports, and the long-term gap in traditional building materials persists driven by both infrastructure and residential construction. Thailand and Cambodia, boosted by tourism real estate and infrastructure development, have continuously growing demand for mid-to-high-end decorative materials and prefabricated components.

Outstanding Growth in the Philippines
The Philippines, as the sixth core market in ASEAN, has posted particularly outstanding growth momentum in recent years. In 2024, China's exports of furniture and its parts to the Philippines reached 820 million US dollars, while exports of lamps and lighting fixtures hit 770 million US dollars.
     Under the RCEP framework, 98.1% of Chinese goods enjoy zero or low tariff treatment. In the first seven months of 2026, bilateral trade between China and the Philippines increased by 24.6% year-on-year, directly driving the rapid release of building materials demand in the local real estate and infrastructure sectors. In terms of product structure, steel products account for 38% of China's building materials exports to the Philippines, with exports reaching 5.02 million tons in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 37%, making it the largest export category.
    Furniture and its parts account for 18%, lamps and lighting fixtures account for 17%, and other supporting building materials including insulated wires and cables, construction plastic products, and sanitary ceramics collectively account for 27%. Chinese products have now captured 52% of the Philippines' total building materials import market, making China the largest source of imported building materials in the country.

Chinese Building Materials Continue to Expand 
Statistics show that China's overall share in ASEAN's building materials import market has exceeded 60%, with the share of construction machinery and general building materials surpassing 70% and 40% respectively. Compared with the high pricing and low adaptability of products from the EU and Japan, Chinese building materials continue to expand their advantages in cost performance, delivery cycle and localized services.
    Over the past five years, China's building materials exports to ASEAN have evolved from the export of single finished products such as tiles and sanitary ware to a full-chain export model of "products + equipment + technology output". Mid-to-high-end products such as eco-friendly tiles, photovoltaic integrated panels and intelligent construction equipment are gradually replacing low value-added basic building materials and becoming the new main growth driver.

Core Competition 
It is worth noting that Chinese building materials brands in the ASEAN market are still mostly concentrated in mid-to-low-end distribution channels, and the share of brands that have truly entered royal projects and landmark high-end projects remains extremely low.
    Industry observations point out that the core competition point in the ASEAN market in the next three years will no longer be low-price-driven volume expansion. Instead, it will focus on completing the value upgrade from "product export" to "brand export" by opening up direct supply channels for high-end projects, adapting to local green building certification standards, and building localized service systems.
    Although the Philippine market is temporarily affected by short-term factors, the strong demand from local business and agricultural communities for stable bilateral trade means it will remain a high-growth incremental market for Chinese building materials in ASEAN in the long run.

(Reported by Building.hk)