Domestic First Quarter Sales Of Clothing Plummeted 32.2%, European Textile And Clothing Sales Or 50%+

This spring, the textile industry can be said to be "caught in the cold winter", and the upstream and downstream industry chains are all damaged.

Zhejiang has a complete textile industry chain. In the upper reaches of chemical fiber industry, Tongxiang, Shaoxing and Xiaoshan are the most famous chemical fiber production base in China. The output of polyester fiber is more than 16 million tons, accounting for 1/2 of the national total. In the middle reaches of printing and dyeing field, the blue print fashion town of Shaoxing Keqiao has gathered 108 printing and dyeing enterprises, and the printing and dyeing volume is nearly 1/3 nationwide. In the field of clothing and clothing downstream, 18 garment industrial clusters have been formed in the whole province.

"Even if there are large downstream customers, our recent sales have also dropped sharply." In Changxing County, the Zhejiang Textile Co., Ltd. is one of the few upstream chemical fiber enterprises in China. About 80% of the local textile enterprises are located downstream. Shen Jianming, deputy general manager of the company, told reporters that most of the customers were making foreign trade orders, producing grey fabrics with their raw silk and then exporting them through printing and dyeing. Since late March, the number of new orders of downstream enterprises has decreased significantly. The inventory of the company has been as high as five hundred or six hundred tons, which is more than two times normal.

Just a few kilometres away from "Ke Yi textile", orders for downstream businesses "Chengxin textile" have shrunk by nearly half. "Our products are exported directly or indirectly overseas, and the volatility of the international market has a great impact on us." Tong Yihong, deputy general manager of the company, said that since April, foreign businessmen have been calling to cancel or postpone orders. Affected by this, the inventory of grey cloth in their warehouses has been more than 600 million meters, worth more than 10 million yuan.

"Now, what worries me most is not the cancellation of orders, but the fact that foreign channels and partners will fall in this epidemic." Turning to the risks of overseas markets, Zhang Jian, deputy general manager of Xinchang textile, said that during this period, foreign customers were required to postpone payment, which amounts to more than 2 million yuan, and about 6000000 yuan "goods floating on the sea" may also face the problem of "difficulty in collecting money". Not only that, Zhang Jian said, but the company has only $5. 6 million orders at hand, only enough to maintain the company's more than 20 day production, and since April almost no additional overseas orders have been made.

Not only in Changxin, but also in Shaoxing long Ju Textile Co., Ltd., too, because of the reduction of orders. "This spring, we sent only two containers to the US market, and European orders were" completely annihilated ". So far, a container has not been sent out. Song Zhanfeng, general manager of the company, told reporters that at present it can only carry on to August this year. Zhao Haifeng, chairman of Zhejiang Weiyi industrial Limited by Share Ltd, told reporters that the utilization rate of the company's equipment is only six or seven now. The processing unit price has also been twenty percent off, which is only half the actual utilization rate, while the textile enterprises only have 85% of the utilization rate of the equipment.

Foreign trade: European textile and garment production and sales or 50%+, or affect textile and garment exports more than 10% this year.

According to the statistics from the European Union statistics bureau, although the sales and exports of textile and garment industry performed well in 2019, the European textile and garment industry passed the difficult 2019 because of the EU's economic recession and Britain's departure from Europe.

The European clothing and Textile Industry Association (Euratex) said that the data of textiles and clothing industry were in line with the overall situation. The number of employed persons has dropped by more than 2%, and the turnover has been negative for the first time in 2012-2013 years. Compared with 2018, the textile industry dropped by 2% and clothing decreased by 1.3%.

However, a questionnaire survey conducted for Euratex members shows that the confidence index of textiles and clothing industry has dropped sharply in March 2020 because of the new coronavirus, and the impact will only get worse.

According to the preliminary survey results, more than half of the companies expect sales and output to drop by more than 50%. In addition, 90% companies are facing serious financial constraints. 80% companies will be temporarily laid off, while 25% companies are considering closing their businesses.

Euratex said that there is still a negative attitude towards the crisis caused by the new coronavirus and the pressure on the operation of the domestic market. EU countries' border control is very severe, resulting in delays in supply and cancellation of orders, thus exacerbating the economic impact.

According to the data of the General Administration of customs, the total import and export trade between China and the EU reached US $75 billion 190 million in the 1 quarter of this year, down 19.8% from the same period last year, a decrease of 5.1 percentage points lower than that of China's foreign trade in the same period. Among them, China exported $49 billion 860 million to the EU, down by 22.1%, and China's imports from the EU dropped by 25 billion 330 million, down 15.1%.

In the overall EU data, exports of clothing and accessories were reduced by 8.8%, while textile yarns, fabrics and articles were reduced by 5 billion 470 million US dollars, down 14.8%. In the first quarter, although China was also affected by the epidemic, it had basically resumed work in March, and overseas orders returned to normal delivery. So compared to the overall data, the textile and garment industry has been doing well. However, despite the spread of foreign epidemic in the late period, the rejection of customs, cancellation of orders and delay in payment affect the decline of export data.

From the whole year, customs data show that in 2019, the EU imported 122 billion 16 million euros of textiles and clothing from the European Union, an increase of 3.91% over the same period last year. Among them, the European Union imported 39 billion 744 million euros of textiles and clothing from China, an increase of 2% over the previous year, accounting for 32.6% of the EU market share and a 0.6 percentage point decline in import share than in 2018.

That is to say, China's textile and clothing account for more than 32% of the total imports of the European Union. If the European Union's annual production and sales dropped by more than 50%, the corresponding impact on domestic textile and clothing exports will be greater. Judging from the data of the first quarter, it will affect more than 10% of textile and garment exports this year.

Export export orders stagnate, the domestic demand market is declining. The first quarter of China's clothing sales plummeted 32.2% per capita clothing consumption was only 369 yuan.

In March, sales of clothing, shoes and hats and needle textiles decreased by 34.8% to 68 billion 900 million yuan, which was 390 points worse than 30.9% in 1-2 months. The industry and catering industry were the two industries that did not improve in March. Overall sales fell by 32.2% in 1-3 months.

Taking into account the high penetration of the apparel industry in China's online channels, as well as the huge objective constraints of the catering industry, the industry's performance is even more horrible. The data released by many international and local brands also show the pessimistic outlook of the industry.

In 2019, it was promoted to the largest market in China, Japan's brand Uniqlo UNIQLO parent, Asia's largest apparel retailer Fast Retailing Co. Ltd.. (9983.T) (6288.HK) the latest quarterly results show that the group's sales in the Greater China market dropped by 40% in March. Taking into account the more sluggish data of the Hongkong SAR market, the mainland market was better than the 40% decline, but at least 30% decline. The company also expects the big China market to decline by 4-5 in the month of 0-40% and 6-8 in sales in 2020, which means that the natural year of 2020 has not increased 2/3 in the group's Greater China market.

The above prediction is also based on commercial activities gradually returning to normal. At present, the consensus of most scientists and medical experts is that the COVID-19 epidemic is expected to relapse in autumn and winter.

Starting from the middle of the month, the performance of local brands is even more embarrassing. In addition to the slight profits made by individual groups such as Semir clothing (002563.SZ), most of the local Apparel Group's revenue has plunged, but at the same time, it has also entered a deficit. The profitability of Semir's clothing industry has also benefited from the group's main business as a stronger demand for children's clothing. The company announced in April 14th that its first quarter profit fell by 93.66-95.68% from 346 million 900 thousand yuan to 1500 - 22 million yuan, and the revenue fell more than 30% during the first quarter. Another company that expects to be profitable in the first quarter is 002763.SZ, Shenzhen underwear group, which expects its profits to drop 84.66% to 17 million 508 thousand and 500 yuan in the first quarter.

In the first quarter, the smaller Explorer (300005.SZ) fell 55.25% to 143 million 500 thousand yuan, a net loss of 6 million 312 thousand yuan, a loss of 8 million 568 thousand yuan after deducting non profits, and a loss of 3000-4000 yuan in the first quarter of ST in 002656.SZ, a profit of 37 million 559 thousand and 300 yuan in the same period last year.

In recent years, 002269.SZ, which made a great loss in 2019, lost 813 million 100 thousand billion yuan in the first quarter, and 1.500-2.500, a representative enterprise of Fujian garment industry, lost 3700 - 48 million yuan in the first quarter. The company made a profit of 9 in 2019. 1 million 645 thousand and 900 yuan, seven wolves said, affected by the pandemic, strict epidemic prevention and control measures were implemented throughout the country, shops and shopping centres and other places were generally postponed, and the consumption terminals stagnated. The company and the upstream and downstream industry chain enterprises were delayed, resulting in a sharp decrease in the company's revenue in the first quarter.

Under the above multiple strikes, the situation of global traditional textile retailers is even more difficult. Closing down the "Thunderstorm" may be just a matter of time, and how long the market impact will last and how big it will be. And for today's textile market, it is not only the two mountains of supply and demand. Capital, inventory and capacity are all a headache.