Major Signals Of Textile And Leather Goods Exports In The First Quarter Of 08

Several signals of textile exports in the first quarter

In May 4th, the Ministry of Commerce released the report on China's foreign trade situation (Spring 2008). The report shows that the total import and export volume in the first quarter of this year was 570 billion 400 million US dollars, an increase of 24.6%, a growth rate of 1.3 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year; exports of US $305 billion 900 million, an increase of 21.40% over the same period last year; imports of US $264 billion 480 million, an increase of 28.60% over the previous year; the foreign trade surplus of US $41 billion 420 million, a decrease of 4 billion 900 million US dollars compared with the same period last year, and a decrease of 10.57% over the same period last year.

On the whole, China's foreign trade is running well.

The report points out that the domestic and foreign environment faced by China's foreign trade is tightening in 2008, especially the pressure of export enterprises may increase further.

Judging from the contribution of the foreign trade surplus, the trade surplus of the textile industry in the traditional dominant export industry was 34 billion 420 million US dollars in the first quarter, accounting for 83.10% of the total surplus.

Customs statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, China's total exports of textiles and clothing totaled 38 billion 511 million US dollars, up 17.51% from the same period last year, which is basically close to the growth level of last year's year, which greatly compensated for the decline of textile exports in the first two months.

Textile resources believe that although China's textile and garment industry is facing multiple pressures this year, such as the acceleration of RMB appreciation, the reduction of export tax rebate rate, the spread of the US subprime crisis, and the increase in labor costs, the export of textile products to the EU has increased by 40%, due to the cancellation of the quota for export, which has restored the export of textile and clothing to normal level.

EU: exports grew by nearly 40% in the first quarter.

Due to the cancellation of export quota, China exported $8 billion 373 million to the 27 EU countries in 1-3 months, an increase of 39.23% over the previous year, accounting for 21.74% of the total exports of textiles and clothing. In the 1-3 months, the export of textiles and clothing to the EU was 2 billion 376 million US dollars and 5 billion 997 million US dollars respectively, up 34.80% and 41.07% respectively over the same period last year.

Us: exports increased by only 2.05% in the first half of March.

Affected by the US subprime mortgage crisis, China's total exports to us textiles and clothing in March amounted to US $5 billion 326 million, increasing by only 2.05%, accounting for 13.83% of total exports.

Exports to textiles and clothing in the US in the 1-3 months were 1 billion 918 million US dollars and 3 billion 408 million US dollars respectively, representing an increase of 34.08% and -4.26% compared to the same period last year, and the year-on-year decline in garment exports is the main reason for the slowdown in the first quarter.

Among other major export markets, Japan and Hongkong remain the two most important markets for textile and clothing exports in China. The export volume in the first quarter was 4 billion 782 million US dollars and 3 billion 367 million US dollars respectively, increasing by 8.42% and - 9.65%. As the main pit market in Europe and the United States, Hongkong is less than 10%, only 8.74%, and the growth rate has dropped by 9.65 percentage points due to the impact of the US slowdown.

South Korea and ASEAN continue to maintain strong growth momentum, up 12% and 48% respectively over the same period last year. ASEAN is the largest region of China's textile exports in the first quarter, with exports of US $2 billion 178 million, ranking fifth in all trading areas.

Purchasing power in non-traditional markets continues to rise

While the willingness to purchase traditional Chinese export destinations is weakening, emerging export markets are growing rapidly.

The Canton Fair, known as "China's foreign trade vane", came to a close last week.

Each Canton Fair will reveal some information to reflect the trend of foreign trade.

From the main statistical indicators, the number of purchasing and trading volume of the purchasers from the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other traditional Canton Fair has declined significantly, while the emerging markets such as the Middle East, ASEAN, Russia and India have continued to increase their willingness to buy "made in China".

The data of the 103 Canton fair show that the Middle East clinch a turnover of US $4 billion 840 million, an increase of 9.6% over the previous session, a 1 billion 990 million US dollar turnover of ASEAN, an increase of 15.9%, a 6.2% increase in Russia and a 32.9% increase in India.

Among them, the number of purchasers in India, South Africa and Brazil in emerging markets increased by 23.2%, 28.5% and 24.6% respectively.

In addition, buyers from Australia and New Zealand also increased by more than 10%.

Textile resources believe that for most textile companies that can hardly be upgraded in the short term, conquering emerging markets is the key direction of export development.

The growth of export space in the European and American markets is limited. While consolidating the European and American markets, it can selectively shift the focus of exports to emerging markets, especially those in India, Russia, South Africa and Brazil with higher population base and consumption capacity, but they must adjust their export products structure in order to better adapt to the market demand of these emerging regions.

In addition, as the exchange rate of the US dollar against the renminbi continued to decline, even though the US spin off to China in 2009, the export situation of the textile industry that lost the price advantage is still not optimistic, so the opening up of the emerging market is even more critical.

On the other hand, in order to improve export efficiency, it is also important to develop more first-rate international buyers instead of dealing with second-hand buyers in re export areas.

Barry: Textile resource editor, industry analyst and industry observer.

Since it has accumulated rich experience in industry, it is committed to the analysis and research of the textile industry upstream and downstream, and has a deep understanding and understanding of the entire textile industry chain.

A large number of analytical articles and research reports have been published in many textile professional media.