News Center

In the first quarter of 2021, facing the complicated development environment and epidemic test at home and abroad, China's textile industry, under the guidance of national macro policy science, promoted epidemic prevention and control and production operation as a whole, based on the high-quality manufacturing of the industrial chain and the rapid response capability of the supply chain, and actively explored the recovery space of domestic and foreign markets. However, on the whole, the development situation faced by the textile industry is still complex and severe, with many uncertain and unstable factors. The foundation for sustained recovery still needs to be consolidated, and the smooth operation of the whole year is still facing great challenges.

01 Industry boom to maintain expansion, production situation fully restored

In the first quarter, under the combined effect of factors such as the stability of the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, the improvement of market demand and the ease of returning to work on the spot, the prosperity and capacity utilization level of the textile industry were steadily improving, and had exceeded the level of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic. According to the survey data of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, the prosperity index of my country's textile industry in the first quarter was 57.1, which was above the 50 boom and bust line for 4 consecutive quarters, and increased by 2.1 percentage points from the first quarter of 2019. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter of 2021, the capacity utilization rates of the textile and chemical fiber industries were 78.3 and 87.1, respectively, both higher than the national industrial level of 77.2, an increase of 11.1 and 12.7 percentage points, respectively, over the same period in 2020, and an increase of 0.6 and 3.9 percentage points, respectively, over the same period in 2019.

The production situation is fully restored. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter, the value added of the textile industry above the national scale increased by 20.3 percent year-on-year, with the first quarter of 2019 as the base period, the two-year cumulative growth of 0.5 percent, indicating that the scale of industry production has returned to pre-epidemic levels. The production situation in all major links of the industrial chain has rebounded in an all-round way. The growth rate of industrial added value in more than 70% of the links has reached more than 10%, and the growth rate of production in nearly half of the links has reached more than 20%. The production situation in the terminal industry improved significantly, and in the first quarter, the value added of the home textile, industrial and textile machinery industries increased by 33.9, 25.4 and 36.3 percent year-on-year, respectively, and the growth rate rebounded sharply by 51.2, 13.9 and 67.8 percentage points from the same period in 2020.

02 Domestic demand market steadily recovers, exports exceed pre-epidemic levels

In the first quarter, with the consolidation of the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, residents offline contact consumer demand accelerated recovery, online consumption continued to maintain a good growth trend, the domestic demand market significantly rebounded. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics and the China National Business Information Center, in the first quarter, the retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats, and knitwear products above the national quota were 340.1 billion billion yuan, an increase of 54.2 percent over the same period last year, and the absolute scale has returned to 99.4 percent in the same period in 2019; in the same period, the retail sales of clothing products of 100 key large retail enterprises across the country increased by 51.1 percent compared with the same period last year. Online retail growth is good, the national online wear goods retail sales increased by 39.6, higher than the same period of 9.1 and 18.2 percentage points, with the first quarter of 2019 as the base period, the two-year average annual growth rate of 8.9.

The export scale of the textile industry exceeded the level of the same period before the outbreak. China Customs Express data show that in the first quarter of 2021, China's textile and apparel exports amounted to $65.11 billion billion, up 44 percent year-on-year, up 15.6 percent from the same period in 2019, and an average annual growth of 7.5 percent for both years. Among the main export products, clothing continued the recovery growth trend since the second half of 2020, driven by the rebound in demand. In the first quarter, the export value reached 33.3 billion billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 47.7 percent year-on-year, and an average annual growth of 6.4 percent for the two years; textile exports reached 31.81 billion billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 40.3 percent year-on-year, and an average annual growth of 8.7 percent. Exports of epidemic prevention materials such as masks and protective clothing have shown a slowdown, the export scale of non-epidemic prevention textile products has steadily rebounded.

03 Quality and efficiency have been improved, and confidence in development has been significantly enhanced.

In the first quarter, under the influence of factors such as the recovery of market demand, the effective effect of the relief policy and the low base in the same period last year, the production and operation of textile enterprises continued to improve, and the pace of benefit repair accelerated. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter, 33000 textile enterprises above designated size across the country achieved operating income of 1054.85 billion billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.9 percent, and the growth rate rebounded by 52.3 percentage points from the same period last year; the total profit was 43.41 billion billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93%. The growth rate was 137.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Corporate profitability improved significantly, with the operating income margin of textile enterprises above designated size at 4.1 percent in the first quarter, up 1.4 and 0.4 percentage points from the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2019, respectively. The operating income of all major links in the industrial chain achieved year-on-year growth. Among them, the profit growth rate of over 70% of the links reached more than 20%, and the profit growth rate of over 40% of the links exceeded 50%. The connection between production and sales of textile enterprises has become smoother, and the quality of operation has continued to improve. In the first quarter, the turnover rate of finished products and total assets of textile enterprises above designated size across the country were 12.7 times per year and 1.1 times per year, respectively, an increase of 27.9 and 20.6 year-on-year.%; the proportion of three fees was 7.2, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the same period last year.

The production and operation situation and market expectations are stable and improving, which has led to the enhancement of confidence in the development of textile enterprises, and the growth rate of industry investment has rebounded rapidly. In the first quarter, the completed investment in fixed assets in China's textile, chemical fiber and garment industries increased by 18.2, 9.5 and 17.1 respectively compared with the same period last year, and the growth rate rebounded sharply by 55.3, 28.7 and 62.9 percentage points respectively compared with the same period last year.

04 Positive factors continue to accumulate, the overall good foundation has yet to be consolidated.

In the first quarter, the textile industry worked hard to overcome many risk adjustments and achieved a smooth start in general. Looking forward to the whole year of 2021, the development situation of the textile industry is still complicated, with strong instability and uncertainty. On the one hand, the new coronary pneumonia epidemic is still spreading around the world, the international political and economic situation is more complex, the prospects for world economic recovery are changing, the overall export situation of the textile industry is more complex, there are uncertain factors such as weak recovery of international market demand, rising risks in the trade environment, and the pressure on the scale of exports to maintain stable growth is greater. At the same time, the normal development pressure, such as the increase of comprehensive cost and the structural shortage of labor, is intertwined with the new situation such as the increase of raw material price fluctuation caused by macroeconomic factors, which makes it difficult for enterprises to completely alleviate the economic pressure on production. The foundation for the textile industry to achieve a comprehensive and sustained recovery needs to be further consolidated, and steady growth and quality improvement are still facing greater challenges.

But on the other hand, China's textile industry still has an important foundation and favorable conditions for sustained recovery. Under the new development pattern of "double cycle", in the first quarter of 2021, China's GDP grew by 18.3 year-on-year, becoming the core engine to promote the global economic recovery. The strong domestic market with continuous expansion and upgrading is not only the core foundation for the steady recovery of the economic operation of the textile industry, but also provides sufficient market power for the continuous innovation and development of the textile industry, and provides favorable support for the industry to integrate into the "double cycle" development pattern at a higher level. The national macro-control policies remain continuous, stable and sustainable, and the policies and measures based on ensuring employment, people's livelihood and market players continue to be effective, which will further improve the business environment, stimulate the vitality of market players, and promote the continuous recovery of the economic operation of the textile industry.

The textile industry will actively implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, build a new development pattern based on the new development stage, make good use of the window period when China's macro-economy and industrial chain supply chain take the lead in stable recovery, further deepen the supply side structural reform, vigorously promote high-quality development, continue to play an important role in ensuring stable market supply, improving employment and income, and strive to consolidate the steady and good foundation of economic operation, to make positive contributions to the steady development of China's national economy in the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan.