As a traditional advantageous industry that accounts for an important share of my country’s total exports, textile exports are the main source of my country’s trade surplus. In the context of weakening external demand in the “post-crisis era”, my country’s textile exports recovered somewhat in the first quarter of 2010, but the prospects are facing severe challenges.
The Ministry of Commerce recently held a symposium for textile export enterprises during the 107th Canton Fair. Most companies believe that textile exports have recovered since the first quarter of 2010 and are better than the same period in 2009.
Zou Kai, head of Shandong Jinyi Textile Company of Xinhuajin Group, said in an interview that compared with the previous two years, the foreign trade situation in 2010 has indeed improved a lot. He said: “In January 2009, I went to the Frankfurt Fair. There were very few merchants, and even fewer merchants were willing to leave their contact information. This time, there were obviously more customers coming to the Canton Fair.”
However, representatives participating in the discussion believed that the prospects for textile exports in 2010 are not optimistic. From the perspective of the external environment, the recovery of the European and American markets is not as good as expected, which has reduced the price tolerance of merchants and made it difficult for companies to increase the prices of export products. From the perspective of the domestic environment, affected by factors such as rising labor costs, rising prices of raw materials, especially cotton, and increased expectations for RMB appreciation, the price and cost of textile export products are constantly rising. From this point of view, my country’s textile export prospects are facing severe challenges.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that the problems exposed by enterprises in the financial crisis are fundamentally issues of development methods and competitive strength. Enterprises must continuously improve their core competitiveness, fully tap internal potential, improve product technical content, develop marketable products, and fundamentally change their development methods.
It is worth noting that my country’s textile companies are taking various positive measures to cope with the foreseeable difficult times in the future. The person in charge of Guangzhou Holilai Textile Industry and Trade Group revealed to the media that the company exhibited all the process processes of the upstream fabric suppliers it purchased at this Canton Fair, and marked the “carbon emissions” of the clothing. In the future, the company will increase its efforts to import products, especially the import of high-tech, highly differentiated, and high value-added products to enhance the competitiveness of its products.
