Despite reports of China losing textile market to its Asian competitors the Chinese exports of both textiles and clothing continue to post double digit growth.
China’s exports of textiles, apparel and clothing accessories increased to $220.302 billion in the first eight months of the current year, registering a growth of 11.11 per cent year-on-year. The latest monthly data released by the General Administration of Customs of China shows that the country’s garment exports grew 11.6 per cent in the same period.
Garments and clothing accessories exports reached $118.034 billion in the first eight months, which was 11.6 per cent higher than the same period of last year. China’s textile exports, including yarn, fabrics, and others, registered a growth of 10.2 per cent year-on-year and the shipment reached $102.268 billion in January-August 2022.
While one can understand Chinese surge in clothing sector because they have gone for high value addition and not volumes. However, its double-digit growth in yarn and fabric is surprising. Both yarn and fabric are low value-added products and wages in China are much higher than competing economies. This was the reason that experts though China would opt out of basic textiles. In fact, lately it relocated its basic textiles and low-cost apparel industries to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. Perhaps low power rates in China made basic textiles viable at a time when cost of power and energy are increasing globally.
Textile and apparel exports during August 2022 amounted to $30.975 billion (the latest period for which data is available). Out of this, textile, yarn, and articles exports earned $12.490 billion, while garments and clothing accessories fetched $18.485 billion in August this year, as per the data.
