Textile Exports To Japan Declined Recently

According to China Customs and

Exports to Japan show a downward trend

According to China Customs data, in 2010 1~4, China's textile and clothing exports to Japan amounted to US $6 billion 849 million, representing a year-on-year decline of 3.67% compared with the same period last year (4.41%) by 8.08 percentage points.

Comparatively speaking, the growth rate of China's textile and clothing exports to the US and EU's main markets was 20.61% and 16.34% year-on-year respectively, and the growth rate increased by 21.81 percentage points and 27.65 percentage points respectively over the same period 1~4.

In terms of proportion, China's exports of textiles and clothing to Japan, the United States and the European Union in the 1~4 months accounted for 12.39%, 15.53% and 20.52% of the total exports of textiles and clothing in the same period, while exports to Japan decreased by 2.50 percentage points compared with the same period last year, while the proportion of exports to the United States and the European Union rose by 0.62 percentage points and 0.10 percentage points respectively.

Further from the Japanese statistical data, according to the Ministry of finance data of Japan, the total textile and clothing imports from Japan in 2010 1~4 amounted to US $7 billion 846 million, representing a year-on-year decline of 4.52% in the same period, and the growth rate dropped 11.46 percentage points over the same period last year (6.94%).

Although the amount of imports of textiles and clothing from China is different due to the differences in statistics between China and Japan, Japan's data also show that Japan is importing from China at the level of growth.

In terms of proportion, Ministry of finance data show that in 2010 1~4, Japan imported 10 billion 246 million of the total textile and clothing from the world, and the amount of textile clothing imported from Japan accounted for 76.57% of its total imports from the world, representing a decrease of 1.82 percentage points compared with the same period last year (78.40%).

Overall, the total sales volume of domestic business in Japan has recovered fairly well, but mainly due to the sales growth of Japanese metal minerals, electrical machinery and apparatus, fuels and other industries, while sales of textile and clothing are still in the doldrums, which has become the main reason for the decline of China's textile and apparel exports.

According to Japan's Ministry of economy and trade, the total commercial sales volume (including wholesale and retail sales) of Japan in April 2010 was 420540 billion yen, an increase of 3.8% over the same period last year. The growth rate was 26.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year, and it has been growing for two consecutive months.

The sales volume of Japanese textile and apparel products in April was 17710 billion yen, down 9.18% compared to the same period last year. The wholesale volume of textiles was 238 billion yen, down 0.2% from the same period last year, the growth rate from March (3.9%) to negative; the wholesale volume of clothing and accessories was 630 billion yen, a 23.7% decrease compared with the same period last year, while the retail sales of clothing products were 903 billion yen, up 2% over the previous year, which was better than wholesale sales, but its growth rate was significantly reduced by 5.8 percentage points compared with March (7.8%).

In addition, China's share in the Japanese textile and apparel market has declined, while the share of rival countries in Vietnam and Thailand in the Japanese market is growing.

In 2010 1~4, Japan imported 418 million dollars of textiles and clothing from Vietnam, an increase of 3.59% over the same period last year, accounting for 4.08% of Japan's total imports of textiles and clothing from abroad, representing an increase of 0.24 percentage points over the same period last year.

Japan imported textiles and clothing from Thailand to US $204 million in 1~4 months, an increase of 5.52% over the same period last year, accounting for 1.99%, an increase of 0.15 percentage points over the same period last year.

Vietnam to Japan

The economy continues to improve, and the uncertainty is still on

According to Japan's cabinet office data in June 10th, the first quarter of 2010, Japan's GDP growth rate was revised to 5%, higher than the initial value of 4.9%, has achieved positive growth for four consecutive quarters.

According to the data released by Japan's economic and industrial province in June 14th, Japan's industrial production index in April was adjusted by 96 after the seasonally adjusted period, rising by 1.3%, reflecting the continued rise in industrial production.

The manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) released by Nomura Securities (Nomura) and Japan Association of materials management (JMMA) showed that Japan's manufacturing PMI in May was 54.7, which has been expanding for 11 consecutive months.

In addition, Japan's consumer confidence index rose to 42.8 in May, the highest level since October 2007, indicating that Japanese consumer confidence is rebounding.

However, some uncertainties remain in the process of maintaining the recovery of Japan's economy.

First of all, in the context of the spread of the European sovereign debt crisis, Japan's national debt problem has also aroused people's concern.

Japan's fiscal debt in fiscal 2009 (April 2009 ~2010 March) has increased to 882 trillion and 920 billion yen, a record high, while the IMF data in April 2010 show that Japan's total national debt has reached 229% of its GDP, ranking first among OECD member countries.

Secondly, Japan's unemployment rate is still high. In April 2010, Japan's unemployment rate rose to 5.1%, the highest level since the beginning of 2010.

China's exports of textiles and clothing to Japan account for more than 10% of the total textile export volume in China, and China occupies more than 75% of Japan's textile and clothing import market.

Although Japan's economy remains on the whole, the Japanese textile and clothing consumption is still sluggish, as well as Japan's huge national debt and high unemployment rate.