International market and economic characteristics of textile industry

The international market

Due to the constraints of raw materials and rising labor costs, the competitiveness of China's textile industry in the international market has declined

From January to April of 2013, China's textile and garment exports reached 82.535 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 16.24% and a growth rate of 15.17 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year.

The growth of export is largely driven by price, but China's share in the world's major markets is declining

Data from the Analysis of The Development Situation of China's Textile Industry, an industry insight study, shows that the export price of textiles increased by 5.15% from January to April. In terms of major export markets such as the EU and Japan, China accounted for 37.51% of the European import market in the first quarter, down 1.04 percentage points from a year earlier. It accounted for 69.74% in Japan, down 2.28 percentage points from a year earlier.

The difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices is less than 2,000 yuan per ton, which can still be offset through technological progress and variety development. And cotton price difference widened to 4000 yuan per ton or more, it is difficult to make up through other means.

Economic characteristics

The economic operation of textile fabric industry in 2012 has the following characteristics:

The slowdown in growth has narrowed

Production growth slowed from a year earlier, but the pace of growth fell less sharply.

From January to October 2012, the total industrial output value of China's 37,000 textile enterprises above the scale reached 4681.29 billion yuan, up 11.3% year on year, down 17 percentage points from the same period of last year, down 3.4 percentage points from the first quarter, and up 0.4 percentage points from January to September. In terms of the output of major categories of products, according to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to October, the output of chemical fiber, cloth and clothing of enterprises above the scale was 31.629 million tons, 52.35 billion meters and 21.91 billion pieces respectively, with year-on-year increases of 11.8%, 9.9% and 6.4%, respectively. The growth rates were 3.7, 3.5 and 3.0 percentage points lower than that of the same period of last year. According to the survey of key enterprises by China Cotton textile Industry Association, the yarn output from January to October fell by 2.3% year on year.

The domestic market is stable

Textile industry domestic market, domestic sales growth is basically stable.

From January to October 2012, the retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats and needle textiles above designated size increased by 17.9% year on year, 6.2 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, 3.3 percentage points higher than the first quarter, and 1.0 percentage points higher than the first half of the year. In real terms, clothing retail sales grew 14.1%, down from 5.6 percentage points in the same period last year and up 3.5 percentage points from the first quarter and 1.0 percentage points from the first half of the year. In October, clothing sales at hundreds of large retail stores nationwide grew 14.2 percent year on year, 2.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Export pressures remain strong

The textile industry is still under great export pressure.

From January to October 2012, China exported a total of us $216.14 billion of textiles and clothing, with a year-on-year growth of 2.5%. In September and October, the accumulative growth rate of export was positive for two consecutive months, reversing the negative growth of export from January to August. However, the export pressure is still large. After deducting the factor of price rise, the export quantity of China's textile and clothing from January to October decreased by 0.9% year on year. From January to September, China's market share in the United States increased slightly compared with the same period last year, but its market share in the European Union and Japan decreased by 0.8 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points respectively.

The benefits of the industry are gradually stabilizing

The benefits of the textile industry have gradually stabilized

The labor efficiency of the industry has been gradually improved, and the profitability of the industry has been gradually stabilized. From January to September, the labor productivity of textile enterprises above the scale reached 573,000 yuan/person, up by 13.8% year-on-year. The total profit reached 181.22 billion yuan, up 0.4% year on year. Although the growth rate was lower than the same period of last year by 32.1 percentage points, the monthly accumulative profit increased for the first time, increasing by 2.2 percentage points over the first quarter and 2.4 percentage points over the first half of the year. The profit margin on sales was 4.5%, down 0.4 percentage points year on year.

General situation of textile industry

According to the operation of the textile industry in 2012, the domestic demand of the textile industry has basically achieved a stable growth compared with that at the beginning of the year. It is expected that with the gradual stabilization of the domestic economic environment, the domestic textile and garment market will continue to maintain a steady growth. Although the international economic environment is uncertain, it is relatively unlikely to continue to deteriorate significantly, and international market demand is expected to enter the process of bottoming. Generally speaking, the textile industry as a whole is in the process of stabilizing. However, the foundation for the stabilization of the industry is still not solid. Any slight change in the domestic and foreign economic environment may make the industry face a severe environment.