A Reuters article on November 4 stated that ten years ago, global buyers gathered at China trade shows to buy Chinese textiles. At that time, the price of Chinese textiles was only a fraction of that in the United States or Italy, but now the rush of buyers is no longer the case. .
Zhang Meiling, CEO of Nantong Kailin Textile Company, said that companies cannot survive if they keep making low-end products. There will always be companies competing with lower prices. Textiles are a symbol of low-cost manufacturing, but the industry is currently under increasing pressure due to rising costs.
In 2015, China’s textile exports declined for the first time in six years, down 5% year-on-year, with an export volume of US$286.8 billion. From January to August this year, textile exports fell by more than 4.5% year-on-year. At the same time, foreign importers complained that the prices of some Chinese commodities have increased by 10% in the past year, but quality standards have not improved significantly. Some Russian buyers believe that textiles from other countries may be more expensive, but the designs are more novel.
The article stated that China’s huge economic transformation has improved people’s living standards and driven up workers’ wages. According to statistics from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the average wage growth rate of Chinese people from 1994 to 2013 was more than 12%. In recent years, the average annual wage growth of workers in the textile industry has been 5-10%. All these force companies to upgrade the industrial value chain to maintain competitiveness. The rapid development of high-tech industries has replaced labor-intensive industries such as textiles and clothing. Some practitioners predict that the low-end textile industry will all move to Pakistan in the next 5-10 years. The outlook for China’s low-end textile exports is unclear
