With the normalization of epidemic mitigation and prevention and control in China, and the continuous release of the dividend of the stable foreign trade policy, the growth of China's textile export has provided strong support. The world economy faltered on the road to recovery, and the epidemic repeatedly slowed down and rebounded around the world. Due to the impact of the epidemic, textile and garment producing countries such as India and Vietnam were blocked from receiving orders, and some orders were transferred to China. In the first half of 2021, China's textile and garment exports reached the highest level in the same period.

According to China's customs monthly report data, in the first half of 2021, China's textile and garment exports amounted to us $149.09 billion, up 12.1% year-on-year. The scale of textile and garment exports not only surpassed the level of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic, but also set a new record for the same period.

No-Number-01

Part of the orders are concentrated in China, and the garment export increases substantially. There are multiple epidemics in the world, and China can still supply garment products steadily. International orders tend to be concentrated in China, and the demand in European and American markets gradually recovers, so China's garment export shows a momentum of acceleration. In the first half of this year, China's garment exports reached us $71.53 billion, up 40.3% year on year, the highest since 2016. Clothing accounted for 51.1% of the total textile and garment exports, 3.9 percentage points higher than that in 2020, returning to the trend before the epidemic.

Changes in the proportion of textile and garment export structure in recent years

Source: China Customs

In terms of export market, the United States, the European Union, Japan and ASEAN are the top four markets of China's garment export. In the first half of this year, garments were exported to these four markets of us $16.68 billion, US $13.36 billion, US $6.08 billion and US $5.84 billion respectively, with year-on-year growth of 65.7%, 30.0%, 14.6% and 42.1%, respectively.

Take the Us, the largest export market, for example. According to the IMPORT data of US Customs, the proportion of Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia in the US clothing import market has been increasing in the past decade. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the clothing imported from These four countries accounted for 19.7%, 8.8%, 5.9% and 5.5% of the US clothing import market respectively from January to May this year. Compared with the same period of the previous year, decreased by 0.4, 0.6, 0.1 and 1.3 percentage points respectively. China accounted for 19.9 percent of the U.S. apparel import market, an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the same period last year.

No-Number-02

With the change of the global epidemic situation, the demand for epidemic prevention materials has dropped sharply, among which the decrease in the demand for masks has dragged down China's textile exports. In the first half of this year, China's textile exports reached 68.56 billion US dollars, down 7.4% year on year.

Among them, the export volume of textile products with customs duty number 63079000 (including masks) was 6.92 billion us dollars, down 78.8% year on year. The proportion of this product in China's textile export decreased to 10.1%, compared with 44.1% in the same period of last year, when the export of this product reached 32.63 billion US dollars.

Affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the first quarter of last year, China's textile exports showed a quarterly low since 2015, with exports of only 26.9 billion US dollars. In the second quarter, due to surging global demand for anti-epidemic materials, textile exports reached a record high of $51.43 billion. Due to the base effect, textile exports declined by 28.5% in the second quarter of this year, but in absolute terms, textile exports in the second quarter of this year, at us $36.79 billion, were still higher than each quarter in 2019 before the outbreak.

Nearly two years textile quarterly export comparison chart

Source: China Customs

No-Number-03

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the rapid decline in the export of textile products (including masks) with China's customs tax number 63079000 is an important factor influencing the decline of textile exports in the first half of this year.

Excluding masks, textile exports recorded a positive growth of 49.0% in the first half of the year. In addition, exports of major commodities such as chemical fibers, yarns, fabrics and spinning machines all increased. The sustained recovery of the global economy has led to an increase in external demand and boosted China's textile exports.

Export list of major commodities in China's textile industry chain in the first half of 2021

Source: China Customs

No-Number-04

Demand continues to recover and major export markets are active. Despite repeated outbreaks, international demand is still growing. In addition, excluding masks, China's textile and garment exports to major trading partners have achieved positive growth.

From the top five markets of textile and garment export, the United States, ASEAN, EU, Japan and South Korea are respectively. In the first half of the year, the five markets of textile and garment export are 24.64 billion DOLLARS, 22.47 billion dollars, 20.59 billion dollars, 9.47 billion dollars and 4.42 billion dollars respectively. Year-on-year growth of 12.2%, 35.7%, -20.0%, -8.4% and 18.5%, respectively. If the export volume of unlisted textile products (customs tax code 63079000, including masks) is excluded, the five major markets all achieved positive growth year-on-year, with growth of 63.4%, 42.2%, 31.0%, 14.7% and 32.4% respectively.

Textile and garment export market in the first half of the year

Source: China Customs

The United States is the largest export market of China's textile and clothing. In the first half of this year, one-fifth of the end products of the industrial chain were exported to the United States. In addition to clothing exports of $16.68 billion, there were textile exports of $6.93 billion, accounting for 23.5 percent and 22.4 percent of the garment and textile export markets, respectively. According to the data of the Textile and Apparel Office of the United States Commerce Department, the United States imported us $10.15 billion of Chinese textile and apparel from January to May 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 32.3%, continuing to occupy the largest import source market in the United States.

With the development of the textile industry in Southeast Asia and South Asia, the demand for the products of the textile industry chain in China is increasing. In the first half of this year, China's textile yarn, textile fabric exports of the first market was firmly in asean. Textile yarn exports to ASEAN amounted to us $1.29 billion, up 33.8% year on year, accounting for 19.2% of the textile yarn export market. Textile exports to ASEAN reached us $10.68 billion, up 41.6% year on year, accounting for 51.4% of the textile export market.

Most of the 27 EU countries are developed economies. Like the United States, they have a strong demand for the end products of China's textile industry chain. In the first half of this year, the EU occupied the second place in China's garment and textile exports. The garment exports to the EU reached 13.36 billion US dollars, accounting for 18.7% of China's garment export market. Textile exports to the EU amounted to us $5.20 billion, accounting for 10.7% of the textile export market.

In the first half of this year, The Japanese market occupied the third place in our garment export market and the fourth place in our textile products market. The garment exports to Japan reached us $6.08 billion, accounting for 9.5% of China's garment export market; Textile exports to Japan reached us $2.34 billion, accounting for 4.8% of the textile export market. According to Japanese customs statistics, Japan imported 981.7 billion yen (about 8.99 billion US dollars) of Chinese textile and clothing in the first half of the year, down 15.9% year on year, accounting for 54.5% of Japan's imported textile and clothing market.

No-Number-05

In the first half of this year, the export of textiles and clothing in the western region of China grew strongly, while the export of the eastern region grew. Specifically, in the first half of the year, the export of textile and clothing in western China reached 6.96 billion US dollars, up 30.2% year on year, accounting for 4.9% of China's textile and clothing export market; The export of eastern region reached us $121.49 billion, up 13.5% year on year, accounting for 86.7% of China's textile and garment export market; The export of the central region was 10.13 billion US dollars, down 4.2% year on year; Exports from the three northeastern provinces reached us $1.78 billion, down 11.6 percent year on year.

From the top five export provinces and cities, Fujian, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu export textiles and clothing have double digit growth. In terms of export amount, zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong and Fujian respectively exported usd 36.78 billion, USD 22.66 billion, USD 21.71 billion, USD 13.53 billion and USD 12.23 billion, with year-on-year growth of 18.6%, 11.3%, 4.5%, 28.0% and 35.8%, respectively.

No-Number-06

The epidemic is still spreading around the world, the world economic recovery is unstable and unbalanced, and China's textile export is facing a complicated external environment.

The recovery of the world economy is uneven. As the world economy picks up speed thanks to vaccine promotion and countries' unremitting efforts to recover their economies, international organizations have upgraded their growth forecasts for the world economy and trade. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook report in July, predicting that the global economy will grow by 6% in 2021, unchanged from the previous forecast. But the IMF raised its growth forecasts for advanced economies by 0.5 percentage points to 5.6 per cent and for emerging market and developing economies by 0.4 percentage points to 6.3 per cent. According to the latest TRADE Statistics and Outlook report of the World Trade Organization (WTO), world trade will enjoy a strong but uneven recovery and is expected to grow by 8% in 2021.

Uncertainty about the global pandemic has increased. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the mutant Delta strain has been found in more than 120 economies around the world. But while the vaccine still protects against the Delta variant and countries are pushing ahead with vaccination, there has been no significant increase in deaths from the current outbreak. Therefore, the resurgence of the virus caused by the Delta strain may disrupt the process of economic recovery, but it will not interrupt the trend of economic recovery in developed countries.

Textile foreign trade enterprises to increase the cost pressure. While the pandemic continues to spread around the world, disrupting global supply chains and drastically reducing port efficiency, demand in the container transport market is recovering well. According to Clarkson's forecast, global container demand will grow 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2021. And as the active of container transport market, international freight increases substantially. Spot prices for a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Los Angeles rose to $10,503 at the end of July, according to the Delury World Container Index, a 258 per cent jump from a year earlier, adding to cost pressures and squeezing profits for textile and foreign trade companies.

In addition, the export of the textile industry is still faced with obvious external risks such as industrial chain, trade order and political pattern remodeling caused by non-economic factors.

Source: Spinning friends network