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Since 2020, the global economy has been declining as the neo-coronary pneumonia epidemic has spread around the world and its impact has increased. Corporate layoffs, rising unemployment, insufficient consumption, lack of personnel, poor logistics and other aspects of the global supply chain have been blocked, international trade and investment have shrunk significantly, different sectors of the global economy are facing downside risks, China's export trade has also declined significantly. According to customs data, China's export trade volume reached $1098.75 billion billion in January-June 2020, down 6.2 percent year-on-year.
In the face of the plight of the general decline in demand in the global trade market, in the face of the severe test of the epidemic at home and abroad, as a major producer of epidemic prevention materials, China's production capacity of key medical materials such as protective clothing and masks has recovered rapidly, while fully ensuring the needs of domestic epidemic prevention and control, but also for the global epidemic prevention and control to send export support from China. Driven by the significant increase in the export of masks, protective clothing and other related epidemic prevention materials, China's textile and clothing exports achieved positive growth for the first time in the year. According to China's Customs Express data show that in January-June 2020, China's exports of textiles and clothing 125.19 billion billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 3.2 percent year-on-year, the growth rate increased by 5.6 percentage points over the same period last year.


Data source: China Customs

Meeting international epidemic prevention needs, highlighting China's role
At this stage, the neo-coronary pneumonia epidemic is still spreading around the world, and medical protection supplies are still in short supply in some of the hardest-hit areas. China's anti-epidemic stage to achieve masks, protective clothing and other medical supplies new production capacity is still continuing to play an active role, production capacity rich enterprises also have the ability to actively export masks and other medical protection supplies. From March 1 to May 31, China exported 70.6 billion masks to 200 countries and regions around the world, according to the white paper "China Action to Fight the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic.
From the point of view of key export markets, at present, the European Union, the United States, Japan on China's masks and other epidemic prevention materials import dependence significantly increased. According to data from Eurostat, from January to April 2020, the 27 EU countries imported 4.76 billion euros of masks from my country, an increase of 11.8 times year-on-year; according to data from the U.S. Customs and the Ministry of Finance of Japan, from January to May 2020, the U.S. and Japan respectively Imports of masks from my country were 5.59 billion US dollars and 267.84 billion yen, respectively, an increase of 4.7 times and 1.6 times year-on-year. At the same time, China accounted for 89.2 per cent and 93.9 per cent of the United States and Japan's mask import market share, respectively, fully meeting the demand for epidemic prevention materials in the relevant key export markets.

Apparel export demand downturn, did not change the downward trend
Although textiles, driven by the surge in exports of masks and other related epidemic prevention materials, exports grew faster, but affected by the epidemic, the overall consumer confidence in the international market continued to decline, consumption capacity declined significantly, and the market demand for traditional consumer goods such as clothing was sluggish. Also makes this year, China's clothing products exports continue to decline. According to customs data, from January to June 2020, China's clothing exports reached 51.08 billion billion U.S. dollars, down 19.4 percent year-on-year, still continuing the downward momentum, accounting for the proportion of total textile and clothing exports in the same period quickly fell to 40.8 percent.
As the key export market of China's clothing products, the whole line declined. In January-May 2020, China's apparel exports to the United States fell 34.49 percent year-on-year, exports to the European Union fell 17.06 percent, exports to Japan fell 9.28 percent, and exports to countries along the Belt and Road also fell 20.27 percent.

Future export growth or correction of epidemic prevention materials,
Related enterprises need to pay close attention
Although the current epidemic is still spreading around the world, the global demand for epidemic prevention materials is still huge, but with the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, it is expected that masks, protective clothing and other epidemic prevention products in the next period of time export growth rate or will be adjusted back.
In the European Union, for example, in March this year, affected by the spread of the epidemic, the European Union to ensure that there is an adequate supply of masks and other personal protective equipment, issued a relevant export ban. On May 26, the EU officially lifted the ban on the export of personal protective equipment. This sends us a related signal-the EU's demand for anti-epidemic materials such as masks is declining. Accordingly, epidemic prevention materials production enterprises with the EU as the main market may need to reduce production capacity appropriately, and relevant epidemic prevention materials export enterprises need to pay further attention to the trend of EU market demand and prepare for the response.
At the same time, the international market consumption of clothing products is very low, and the export pressure of China's clothing products is still great in the future. According to statistics, from January to May, U.S. clothing and apparel retail sales fell 47.8 percent year-on-year; EU textile and apparel retail sales fell 77.8 percent year-on-year in May; and Japanese clothing and apparel retail sales fell 27.1 percent year-on-year in January-May.
On the whole, the overall export pressure of China's textile and clothing is still large during the year.