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Do you remember the news that the heads of state of China and the United States reached a consensus in early December to stop imposing new tariffs. The tariffs originally imposed by the United States on US $200 billion of Chinese goods remained at 10% after January 1, instead of the previously announced 25%. After the temporary truce in Sino-US trade, the next key is whether the two sides can reach a final agreement in the next time. If not, the trade war will continue to escalate and the 10% tariff will be raised.

Sino-US trade relations have been affecting China's economy and China's foreign trade exports. China is the world's largest textile and clothing exporter, at the same time, textile and clothing exports are also an important component of China's trade exports, while the United States is China's largest textile and clothing export market, China's top five textile and clothing export markets are: the United States 17%, Japan 8%, Hong Kong 6%, Vietnam 5%, the United Kingdom 4%. China's exports to the United States accounted for 15.5 percent of total textile and apparel exports. From the perspective of export structure, clothing exports are the main ones, accounting for 73% in 2017, and textile exports are supplemented by 27%.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions where the textile industry is concentrated, many textile companies have frequent trade exchanges with the United States. The Sino-US trade war has eased for nearly a month. What long-short effects will it have on the textile industry?

Inject a dose of fresh blood into the textile foreign trade market

Over time, the U. S.-China trade detente is playing a positive role. Since the middle of this month, there has been good news from polyester factories and textile and garment enterprises.

On December 14, there was a surprise in foreign trade export orders: it is rumored that three polyester enterprises in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province received a total of hundreds of millions of yuan of filament export orders, while a well-known textile enterprise in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province also received hundreds of millions of yuan of textile export orders, which gave a great boost to the previously depressed textile foreign trade market. It has played a positive role in the recovery of orders under the Sino-US trade easing.

Polyester manufacturers and textile enterprises have received large orders one after another, so has the foreign trade order of the entire textile market improved?

U.S. foreign trade orders increase, good foreign trade textile enterprises

The head of a clothing trader to the United States in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, said that the tariff remained at 10%, making the export pressure of enterprises to the United States less.

The manager of a silk factory in Wujiang also said that over time, the easing of Sino-US trade has brought us more US orders. Previous orders were mainly in small batches and multiple batches. Recently, we have received some big orders. In fact, we are racing against time. You don't know when the tariff will be increased again. So now we can do it as soon as possible. The factory is rushing to produce and deliver goods, and the workers are very busy.

Grandma Li, who works in this silk factory, said, "It's been so busy these days, the old man and I do flip bags every day until more than 10 o'clock to go to bed, and get up tomorrow morning and turn them again. These are some cloth bags exported to the United States, and our job is to turn her over and get all these things done before New Year's Day."

The release of hundreds of millions of filaments, hundreds of millions of export orders from textile enterprises and many small and medium-sized enterprises have also received some US orders, which also shows that the export market is gradually improving.

US orders to Southeast Asia are coming back

Due to the incessant friction in the previous Sino-US trade war, a large number of US orders were transferred to Southeast Asia. However, China has a strong voice in textile and garment fabrics. At present, the proportion of orders in Southeast Asia in Shengze market is second only to that in Japan and South Korea. However, some of our fabric orders exported to Southeast Asia are still in Europe and the United States. Now the trade war has eased and more and more US orders have begun to return.

The head of a trading company also mentioned that although re-exporting Southeast Asia can avoid the risk of tariffs on the United States, the supply of local fabrics is relatively scarce compared to the Chinese market, and American customers are still more willing to place orders in China.

Trade friction is still unknown, don't be blindly optimistic

Even if China and the United States are now in a state of relaxation, it cannot fully guarantee that there will be no new trade frictions between China and the United States in the future. In May this year, China and the United States once reached a cease-fire agreement on the trade war, but less than 10 days after the agreement was signed, the White House suddenly announced a 25% tariff on 50 billion US dollars of Chinese goods, so that domestic netizens satirized Trump's "spirit of contract" as "the spirit of abandoning the contract".

Therefore, it is obviously too optimistic to think that the trade war is over now. A temporary truce might just be halftime. For textile enterprises, if the tariff increase is adjusted from 10% to 25%, the impact on enterprises will be greater. Maintaining it at 10% gives many companies a little relief.

Conclusion

The trade war is also an opportunity for the textile industry to coexist with opportunities and challenges. China's textile industry can use this to transform domestic demand and tap emerging markets. Textile enterprises can improve product quality and product innovation, broaden the market.

The Sino-US trade war is uncertain and long-term. On the one hand, export textile companies should do a good job in market planning. They not only need to vigorously encourage independent research and development of new fabrics, but also need to further expand the textile industry chain. Reasonably develop emerging markets in countries along the "Belt and Road" to reduce the risks caused by the decline in U.S. orders; on the other hand, textile companies can upgrade and transform to increase the added value and technological content of fabrics, so that the competitiveness of fabrics no longer depends on price. And quantity.

In the future, even if the impact of the trade war increases and deepens, we will not be afraid of challenges by opening up new markets and enhancing our own strength.