Abstract. The article considers features of the East Asian machinery-building cluster. It differs from the older machinery-building clusters in West Europe and North America primarily. The share of intermediate goods in the imports of the East Asian countries is higher than the share of such goods in their exports. This results from prevalence of the assembly manufactures in their industry. The international supply chains of the region are described as follows: manufacturing parts and components in the countries of East and South-East Asia – assembly in China – exports to USA, Europe and Japan. The changes in the structure of the international supply chains in 2007–2011 are shown in the case of telecommunications industry. It is established that the structure of the telecommunications imports of the USA has changed in favor of China. The technological level of the telecommunications equipment exported from China enhanced significantly. The share of parts and components in China’s telecommunications exports increased. Imports of telecommunications equipment from Japan to USA diminished whereas its delivery from China to Japan more than doubled. This points to reduction of the role of Japan as the supplier of telecommunications equipment in the world scale.