Capacity transfer under sluggish demand

The textile and clothing exports in the first five months of this year are not very optimistic. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to May this year, China's cumulative export value of textiles and clothing was 118.2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 5.26%. Among them, the cumulative export value of textiles was 56.83 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 9.39%; The cumulative export value of clothing decreased by 1.09% year-on-year.

From the total export volume of textiles and clothing in the past decade, although the quantity has shown a continuous growth trend, the average annual growth rate of the total export volume has gradually decreased, and the trend of weak international market demand and slower growth rate has gradually emerged.

The impact of weak consumption, procurement transfer, and friction between China and the United States in the US and European markets is parallel. The reporter noticed that in 2022, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and other countries saw a significant increase in the import of textiles and clothing to major consumer markets such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan. For example, according to data from China Cotton Network, Vietnam's exports of textiles and clothing to the United States increased by 7.9% year-on-year, exports to the European Union increased by 34.7%, and exports to Japan increased by 25.8%.

China's clothing exports are undergoing structural changes. According to customs data from January to April this year, China's clothing exports to developed markets such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan decreased by 14%, 20.4%, and 2.5% year-on-year, respectively. The proportion of clothing exports in China decreased by 3.8 percentage points, 4 percentage points, and 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, respectively.

International demand is sluggish and domestic production capacity is surplus. The reporter learned that the overall operating rate of the main downstream industries of domestic chemical industry is also hovering at a low level. In May, the current operating rate of the textile market is about 70%, the PTA production load of the chemical fiber industry has been reduced to 77%, the operating rate of the paper industry is at a low level of 65.7%, and the operating rate of the PVC industry is 41.7%, which is expected to continue to weaken.

Overseas production bases should provide more services for overseas market orders. From the above situation, it seems that textile enterprises can reduce costs and seize the global market by going overseas, which is the optimal solution at present.