In April 2013, my country’s textile and apparel trade volume was US$24.49 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%. Among them, exports were US$22.28 billion, an increase of 18.5%; imports were US$2.21 billion, an increase of 15.8%, and the trade surplus was US$20.07 billion, an increase of 18.8%. From January to April, my country’s textile and apparel cumulative trade volume was US$88.27 billion, an increase of 16%, of which exports were US$80.17 billion, an increase of 16.5%, imports were US$8.1 billion, an increase of 10.8%, and the cumulative surplus was US$72.07 billion, an increase of 17.2%.
Exports to Hong Kong surged by 45%
After a brief fluctuation in March, my country’s textile and apparel exports increased again in April, with a double-digit increase. Preliminary analysis shows that the current main reasons for promoting export growth are the slow recovery of external demand, the narrowing of domestic and foreign cotton price differences in the first quarter, the rapid growth of exports to emerging markets, and the low year-on-year base (exports fell by 5% in April last year). However, there are also some other factors. From a market perspective, exports to the EU and the United States increased by 2.8% and 1.3% respectively in April, and the growth rates were still within a reasonable range; exports to Hong Kong surged by 45%, which was abnormal. Hong Kong is the main market for my country’s textile and apparel exports, but it has been showing a slow growth trend in recent years. The average growth rate in the five years from 2008 to 2012 was only 0.45%, and its share in my country’s textile and apparel exports also increased from 8.6% in 2008. % dropped to 6.4% in 2012. Since 2013, the Hong Kong market has become active again, and exports of goods trade to Hong Kong have grown rapidly. From January to April, the cumulative exports of national goods trade to Hong Kong increased by nearly 70%, and the cumulative exports of textiles and clothing increased by 28%. The reasons need further analysis.
Border small trade exports increased by 97.3%
In April this year, general trade exports, which accounted for 75% of exports, increased by 18.5%, small border trade increased by 97.3%, and processing trade increased slightly by 3.9%. From January to April, cumulative exports of general trade increased by 17.7%, border small-scale trade increased by 74.2%, and processing trade decreased by 0.5%. Exports to Hong Kong are dominated by general trade, accounting for 70%. In April, general trade exports to Hong Kong increased by 67%, and the export contribution rate reached 90%.
ASEAN has been the largest market for two consecutive months
The volume and price of clothing exports to Europe and the United States have both increased. In April this year, my country’s textile and apparel exports to the EU and the United States rebounded, achieving slight growth of 2.8% and 1.3% respectively. Clothing is the main commodity driving growth. The commonality of clothing exports to the EU and the United States is that both volume and price have increased. Export volume to the EU increased by 3%, and the export unit price increased by 4.4%. Export volume to the United States increased by 3.1%, and the export unit price increased by 2.5%. From January to April, exports to the EU increased by 5.5%, and exports to the United States increased by 7.3%. In terms of product categories, apparel exports to the EU increased by 7.9%, and apparel exports to the United States increased by 10.4%.
The volume of apparel exports to ASEAN has grown rapidly, and the export unit price has soared. In April, my country’s exports to ASEAN increased significantly again, with an increase of 71% in the month, of which textiles and clothing increased by 40.6% and 139% respectively. ASEAN has surpassed the EU for two consecutive months and ranks as China’s largest export market. Among the major categories of commodities exported to ASEAN, the export of knitted and woven clothing grew rapidly, with export volume increasing by 48.7% and export unit price increasing by 63%.
Cumulative exports to Japan are still experiencing negative growth, and the outlook is worrying due to the impact of RMB appreciation. Exports to Japan fell by 4% overall in the first quarter and rebounded slightly in April. Exports increased by 7.1% that month. The cumulative export decline from January to April narrowed to 1%. Nonetheless, Japan remains the export market with the least promising prospects. Changes in exchange rates have made bilateral trade, which was already sluggish due to political and economic influences, even worse.
The export volume of major categories of commodities continues to grow
In April this year, textile exports were US$9.65 billion, an increase of 14.8%, and clothing exports were US$12.63 billion, an increase of 21.5%. Among them, yarn exports increased by 10.1%, fabrics increased by 19.4%, and knitted and woven garments increased by 11.2%. From January to April, the export volume of the three major categories of commodities increased by 13.3%, 12.9% and 9.2% respectively; in addition to a 3.4% decrease in yarn, the export unit price increased by 1.4% in fabrics and 10.8% in knitted and woven garments.
Textiles and clothing account for half each of exports to Hong Kong. In April, exports to Hong Kong suddenly surged, with textiles increasing by 36.9% and clothing increasing by 56%. Among textiles, cotton yarn, cotton cloth and home textiles grew the fastest; among clothing, the export volume of knitted and woven clothing increased by 27.3%, and the export unit price increased by 22.2%. Taking silk woven clothing with higher unit value as an example, the unit price of exports to the world dropped in that month, but the unit price of exports to Hong Kong increased by 43.6%; the unit price of wool woven clothing to the world increased by only 3.6%, but to Hong Kong it increased by 40.3%. %.
Yarn imports increase, cotton imports decrease
In April, imports of textiles and clothing increased by 14.3% and 25.5% respectively, of which yarns for major commodities increased by 30.5%, fabrics increased by 5%, and textile finished products increased by 3.5%. From January to April, imports of textiles and clothing increased by 9.9% and 15.1% respectively. Among them, yarn increased by 31%, driven by cotton yarn, which is the fastest growing category of commodities. The unit price of yarn imports still showed negative growth, falling by 6.9% in April, and a cumulative decrease of 4.3% from January to April; the unit price of fabric imports increased by 18.6%, and that of clothing increased by 4.1%.
In April, cotton imports were 430,000 tons, a decrease of 15.5%. It was the third consecutive month of negative growth year-on-year, and a month-on-month decrease of 18.7%. The import unit price was US$1,940/ton, down 18%.4%. From January to April, the cumulative cotton imports were 1.796 million tons, a decrease of 13.5%, and the average import price was US$1,890/ton, a decrease of 19.4%. According to data released by the China Cotton Association, the price index of China’s 328-grade cotton in April was 19,376 yuan, an increase of 21.05%. As international cotton prices continue to fall while domestic cotton prices rise steadily, the tax-free price difference between domestic and foreign cotton expanded again to 4,700 yuan/ton in April.
The market shares of the three major traditional markets have waxed and waned
EU: Total imports continue to decline. According to EU customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, EU textile and clothing imports were US$30.23 billion, a decrease of 1.3%. Among them, clothing decreased by 2.3% and textiles increased by 2.1%. The EU’s textile and apparel imports from China fell by 3.9%, imports from ASEAN fell by 2.5%, and imports from Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan maintained growth. In the first quarter, my country’s textile and apparel market share in the EU further shrank to 37.4%, down 1 percentage point from the same period last year; ASEAN’s share of the European market also dropped slightly by 0.1 percentage point from the same period last year.
United States: Market share rebounded slightly. According to U.S. Customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, U.S. textile and clothing imports totaled US$26.39 billion, an increase of 3.1%, of which textiles and clothing increased by 4.1% and 2.8% respectively. Imports from China and ASEAN increased by 4.8% and 6.2% respectively. Chinese products have a market share of 35.4% in the United States, a slight rebound from the same period last year. ASEAN’s market share in the United States continued to climb to 20.4%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the same period last year.
Japan: ASEAN product share expands. According to Japanese customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, Japan’s textile and clothing imports dropped by 4.8% to US$9.65 billion, of which textiles fell by 7.7% and clothing fell by 4.1%. Imports from China were US$6.73 billion, a decrease of 7.8%, while imports from ASEAN increased by 6.8%. The share of Chinese products in the Japanese market dropped to 69.7%, down 2.2 percentage points from the same period last year, while ASEAN’s share in Japan rose to 15.7%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from the same period last year, and an increase of 2 percentage points from the same period last year.
