Chinas textile and apparel exports outperform domestic sales during Jan to Jul

This year, domestic sales of textile and apparel were relatively sluggish. From Jan to Jul, retail sales of garments, footwear, hats and knitwear above designated size declined by 5.6% year-on-year. In perspective of monthly sales, only Jun and July saw positive year-on-year growth, but the growth was limited. China’s textile and apparel exports were doing well compared with the domestic sales. During Jan-Jul, the total exports of China’s textile and apparel goods amounted to US$189.84 billion, up 12.7% year-on-year, among which garments exports toppled US$99.9 billion, up 13.3% year-on-year.

Viewed from the proportion of major products exported, knitted garments made of chemical fiber took the largest part, and cotton knitted garments came second, followed by woven fabrics made of chemical fibers, and other fabrics accounted for 9.2%. From Jan to Jul, the share of fabric export was rather large, accounting for about 23% of the total textile and apparel exports. 

In Jan to Jul, China’s exports of textile and apparel made of chemical fibers performed better than cotton goods. One of the reasons lied in the ban on Xinjiang cotton, and another reason was that the unit price of cotton products increase faster than products made of chemical fibers, thus some orders were shifted to different regions or varieties.

EU countries, the US, Japan and ASEAN countries were still the major destinations for China’s textile and apparel exports in Jan-Jul. In particular, the year-on-year growth of exports to ASEAN and Bangladesh increased more rapidly to reach 23% and 36% respectively.

The proportion of China’s textile and apparel exports in Europe, the US and Japan moved down gradually. The proportion in the US, in particularly, declined rapidly since the US-China trade war. Although China’s textile and apparel still held a dominant position in those countries, especially in Japan, yet it was worth noticing that parts of the share was being squeezed by Southeast and South Asia countries. China is in the middle of an outward shifts of its low-end textile and apparel industry, and this is expected to continue in the future. However, given the limited capacity and incomplete industrial chains, Southeast and South Asia countries are highly dependent on imports particular imports from China.

(Note: The export proportion increased significantly in 2020 due to the large exports of epidemic prevention textiles such as masks.)

From 2007 till now, the share of China's textile exports in the total textile and apparel exports rose gradually from 32.8% to 47.4%, up 14.6 percentage point. In addition, changes in China’s textile exports orientation could also be identified.

In summary, from Jan-Jul, China's textile and apparel exports were significantly better than domestic sales, and the exports of textile and apparel made of chemical fibers were clearly better than cotton goods. Among the major export markets, ASEAN countries and Bangladesh saw the largest growth of China's exports.