Customs Statistics: Textile And Clothing Trade Volume Declined In October

Inflation in key markets in Europe and the United States remained high, interest rate hikes were expected to continue unabated, and consumer demand continued to shrink, leading to a decline in China's textile and clothing exports in October, which expanded to double digits for the first time in the year.

According to customs statistics, in October this year, China's textile and clothing trade volume reached 26.65 billion US dollars, down 14.5% year on year. Among them, the export was US $25.02 billion, down 13.6% year on year; Imports reached 1.63 billion US dollars, down 27% year on year; The trade surplus was US $23.39 billion, down 12.4% year on year. From January to October this year, China's textile and clothing import and export trade volume reached US $292.96 billion, up 4.8% year on year. Among them, the export was 273.89 billion US dollars, up 6.7% year on year; Imports reached US $19.08 billion, down 16.5% year on year; The accumulated trade surplus was US $254.81 billion, up 9% year on year.

Under the influence of the shrinking external demand and the high base factor last year, China's textile and clothing exports declined year-on-year in October, but the slowdown was slightly faster than expected. At present, export enterprises reflect that the number of orders in hand has decreased compared with the same period of previous years, and they are cautious about the situation in the first quarter of next year.

Both imports and exports are under great pressure in October

In October, China's textile and clothing exports continued to shrink, and for the first time in the year, there was a double-digit decline. The export volume of that month decreased by 13.6% year on year and 10.8% month on month respectively. Among them, textiles and clothing decreased by 9.1% and 17%, respectively, 6.4 and 12.6 percentage points higher than that of the previous month.

Imports also did not improve, and the decline in imports in the month reached the highest 27% in the year. Among them, textiles and clothing decreased by 35% and 16.9% year on year respectively, 1.3 and 12 percentage points higher than that of last month.

In October, the decline of textile and clothing exports was further expanded than that of last month. The exports of yarn, fabric, household textiles and knitted and tattered clothing, the four major export commodities, all declined by 7.2%, 2.8%, 15.2% and 17.2% year on year, respectively. The speed of home textiles and clothing of finished products decreased faster.

From the analysis of export volume and price, the export volume and price of bulk commodities show a unilateral downward trend. Only the export volume of yarn kept growing that month, while other commodities declined. For the first time in the year, the fabric fell 3% year on year, the knitted and woven clothing fell 18.6%, and the household textiles fell 8.3%, all of which were larger than the previous period. In the same period, the export unit prices of major commodities also fell in an all-round way. Only the export prices of fabrics and knitted and tattered garments in the month rose 0.2% and 1.8% respectively year on year, but the rise slowed down significantly compared with the previous period. The export prices of yarns and household textiles fell 14.7% and 7.5% respectively year on year, and the decline continued to expand compared with the previous month.

From January to October, China's textile and clothing exports increased by 7% and 6.6% respectively year on year. Yarn, fabric and knitted and woven clothing of major commodities increased by 15.2%, 14.1% and 11% respectively, while home textile products decreased by 1.3%.

Under the influence of factors such as weak external demand in the US and Europe markets and the transfer of overseas orders, the exports of the top six major provinces and cities in China fell in October, with Shandong's decline narrowing, while Jiangsu, Fujian and Shanghai's year-on-year declines of 24.6%, 31% and 26.8%, respectively, which exceeded the average. The decline of Jiangsu and Shanghai respectively increased by 13 and 18 percentage points compared with the previous month.

From January to October, the export of two thirds of China's regions kept growing. Among the top five key provinces and cities, Guangdong and Fujian were down 4.4% and 2.7% year on year respectively, while Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong were up 14.2%, 4.7% and 7.3% year on year, higher than the average.

In terms of import, due to the pressure of domestic demand and weak consumption, major provinces and cities declined significantly in October, with Shanghai, the first place in import, declining 12.1% year on year, and Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong falling 36.5%, 32.8%, 23.6% and 37.2% year on year respectively.

From January to October, the import of major provinces and cities declined significantly. Shanghai saw a year-on-year decrease of 5.1%, while Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian saw year-on-year decreases exceeding the average.

Clothing export to ASEAN keeps growing

In October, the decline of China's textile and clothing exports to the United States and the European Union accelerated, negatively pulling the overall export growth of the month by 11.4 percentage points, which also led to the decline of the cumulative exports to the United States in the previous October, and the cumulative export growth to the European Union was less than the global average. Japan and ASEAN are still supporting, and the overall export growth of the month is pulling 1 percentage point in the positive direction.

In October, the inflation level in the United States fell back from the previous period, but it has not yet fallen back to a reasonable range, and the demand for clothing and other consumer goods is low. In that month, China's exports to the United States fell for the third consecutive month, and the decline reached 33.8%, 3.7 percentage points more than the previous month. In terms of volume and price, the number of exports to the United States in the month fell by 43.4% year on year, and the export price rose by 17%. The export of knitted and tatting clothing, a major commodity, fell 34.9% year on year, with a decline of more than 30% for two consecutive months, of which the export volume dropped 43.4%, exceeding 40% for two consecutive months, and the average export price rose 15%.

From January to October, China's exports to the United States totaled US $46.14 billion, down 1.6% year on year from an increase. Among them, the needle woven clothing increased by 11.2%, of which the export volume decreased by 1.5% and the average export price increased by 11.2%.

The EU market fluctuates violently, and high inflation continues, which has a significant impact on the consumption choices of European consumers. According to the data released by Eurostat, the final annual rate of CPI in the euro area in October was 10.6%, breaking double digits and hitting a new record high. Among them, the prices of energy, food, tobacco and alcohol grew fastest, squeezing out some expenditures on clothing and apparel goods. In October, China's textile and clothing exports to the EU fell 34.2% year on year, 17.8 percentage points more than that of last month. Among them, the export volume of knitted and tatting clothing of major commodities decreased by 32.7% under the dual pressure of export volume and price, and the export volume and price fell by 27.7% and 6.9% respectively, both of which were larger than that of last month.

The decline of China's exports to the EU in October caused the rapid decline of the cumulative export growth in the first 10 months. From January to October, China's cumulative export of textiles and clothing to the EU reached 40.27 billion US dollars, up 4.7% year on year, lower than the 9.8% level from January to September, and also lower than the global average. Among them, the export volume of knitted and tatting clothing of major commodities increased by 13.6% year on year, the export volume decreased by 1.5%, and the average export price increased by 15.3%.

The growth rate of China's export of intermediate goods to ASEAN fell back, and the export of clothing kept growing. Affected by the shrinking demand of the terminal market, the growth rate of China's export of intermediate goods to ASEAN has also slowed down significantly compared with the previous period. In October, China's textile and clothing exports to ASEAN reached US $4.76 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%, and the growth rate dropped by 13.3 percentage points compared with the previous month. Among them, the exports of major commodity fabrics were basically flat on a year-on-year basis, with the export volume increasing by 2.6% and the export price falling by 2.5%. Clothing exports to ASEAN still maintained a rapid growth of 17.6%.

From January to October, China's exports to ASEAN totaled US $46.47 billion, up 20.9% year on year. Major commodity fabrics increased by 19.6% under the combined effect of quantity and price, and the quantity and price increased by 12.4% and 6.1% respectively.

China's textile and clothing exports to Japan maintained a weak growth. In October, Japan's CPI and core CPI rose 3.7% and 1.5% year on year respectively. In that month, China's exports to Japan achieved a slight growth of 0.6%, which was better than its exports to the world and Europe and the United States. The export volume of knitted and tatting clothing of major commodities decreased by 1% year on year, of which the export volume decreased by 2.1% and the average export price increased by 1.1%.

From January to October, China's textile and clothing exports to Japan totaled US $17.08 billion, slightly narrowing the year-on-year growth to 1.9%. The export volume of knitted and tatting clothing of major commodities increased by 3.9% year on year, of which the export volume decreased by 2.1% and the export price increased by 6.1%.

China's export growth to RCEP member countries slowed down. In October, the textile and clothing exports to the 14 RCEP member countries increased by 1.9% year on year, better than the global overall situation, but the growth rate dropped significantly by 13.6 percentage points compared with the previous month. Among them, ASEAN and Japan played a leading role, and their exports to South Korea, Australia and other countries declined. From January to October, China's textile and clothing exports to 14 member countries of the Agreement totaled US $79.35 billion, up 14% year on year.

In October, China's textile and clothing imports from RCEP members fell by 21.5%. From January to October, the cumulative import volume decreased by 12.4%, less than the average.

The decrease of orders caused the contraction of intermediate imports

Due to weak external demand and reduced orders, China's textile intermediate imports continued to shrink. In October, the total import decline of yarn and fabric in China further expanded to 41.5%. In terms of clothing, the price increase of overseas clothing imports narrowed, but the domestic market's demand for imported clothing decreased, resulting in a 17.4% decline in the import of knitted and woven clothing in October, and a 41.6% decline in the import volume.

From January to October, China's textile and clothing imports totaled US $10.21 billion and US $8.86 billion respectively, down 21.7% and 9.6% year on year respectively. The cumulative import volume of yarn, fabric and knitted and woven clothing of major commodities decreased by 38.9%, 12.5% and 35.1% respectively year on year, and the average import price increased by 11.9%, 3.5% and 42.3% respectively.

Cotton imports rebounded after contracting for 4 months. In October, China imported 130000 tons of cotton, an increase of 40000 tons month on month, a sharp increase of 104% year on year, with the fastest growth in imports from the United States, Brazil and Turkey. The import price continued to rise and exceeded the 3000 US dollars/ton threshold. The average import price of the month was 3070 US dollars/ton, which continued to hit a new high, with year-on-year and month on month increases of 40.8% and 6.2% respectively.

From January to October, China's cotton imports totaled 1.587 million tons, down 17% year on year, and the average import price was 2670 dollars/ton, up 42%. Among them, imports from the United States accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total. In the first 10 months, the cumulative imports from the United States increased by 30.7% year on year, and the average import price increased by 38.7%. Brazil and Egypt ranked second and third respectively, accounting for 24% in total.

The import volume and price of chemical fiber fell rapidly in October. In that month, China imported 29000 tons, down 32% year on year and 12% month on month. The average import price of the current month was 2480 US dollars/ton, down 210 US dollars/ton compared with the previous month, and the year-on-year growth rate shrank to 6%.

According to the information released by the China Cotton Association, in October, global economic growth was expected to slow down, consumer demand weakened, bulk commodities were under pressure, international cotton prices continued to decline, domestic cotton prices were weak, the decline was smaller than international, and the difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices continued to narrow. The number of domestic new cotton on the market was less than expected, the supply of domestic cotton market resources was tight, and the spot price trend was stronger than that of futures. However, the textile market was not prosperous in the peak season. The purchase of raw materials was mostly maintained on demand, and the domestic price declined slowly. The international cotton price fell continuously due to factors such as the intensification of inflation in Europe and the United States, the strengthening of tightening expectations, the increase of interest rates by the European Central Bank, and the sharp reduction of global cotton consumption in the October supply and demand report of the United States Department of Agriculture. The decline was larger than that at home, and the difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices continued to narrow. China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles