BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) – China's textile and apparel import and export grew for two consecutive years by 2018, with upstream products export increase faster than downstream ones, announced a Chinese textile industry chamber on the 29th East China Fair (ECF) earlier in March.
Last year, China exported 276.73 billion U.S. dollars of textile and apparel products, up 3.7 percent year on year. For textile products, 119.1 billion U.S. dollars were exported, up 8.1 percent from 2017 and the country exported 157.63 billion U.S. dollars of clothes, up 0.3 percent from the previous year, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel (CCCT).
In 2018, China's upstream textile products export posted faster growth than downstream products, noted Cao Jiachang, head of CCCT. On one hand, outbound shift of China's apparel manufacturing industry caused the slowing downstream products export growth and on the other, demand for yarns and fabrics from neighboring low-cost apparel producing nations ballooned due to their incomplete industry chains, according to Cao.
Statistics from China's customs authority showed that China's yarns and fabrics exported to Vietnam and Bangladesh strode up 19.3 percent and 21.5 percent year on year in 2018. Textile and clothes export to ASEAN market jumped up 11.7 percent year on year and ASEAN becomes an important region to which China’s apparel industry transfers.
In traditional markets including the European Union, the U.S. and Japan, China's textile and apparel products export in 2018 edged up 1.5 percent, 8 percent and 2.7 percent respectively from a year ago.
In the market along the Belt and Road routes, export of textile and clothes from China increased for 3 years in a row and grew 5.3 percent year on year in 2018.
As regards import, China imported 26.14 billion U.S. dollars of textile and clothes in 2018, up 6.4 percent year on year. Textile import grew 3 percent and apparel import hiked 14.8 percent from 2017.
Recent years, China reduced import duties to echo the booming domestic consumption demand, helping drive clothes import up notably. (Edited by Duan Jing, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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