Since the beginning of this year, textile and garment foreign trade enterprises facing long-term development challenges have ushered in gratifying development opportunities.
The latest statistics released by the General Administration of Customs show that from January to August, China's exports of clothing and clothing accessories increased by 17.9 year-on-year. What are the reasons for the recovery of textile and garment exports? Can the recovery momentum continue?
Overseas outbreaks accelerate the return of orders.
"Our orders in hand have been scheduled for November, and we are trying to expand production capacity every day." Jin Zhijiang, chairman of Jiangsu Guotai Huasheng Industrial Co., Ltd., clearly felt the warmth of the textile and clothing export market. Since March this year, he has repeatedly visited Henan, Anhui, Shandong and other places to look for factory cooperation to expand production capacity and strive to receive more orders.
Many textile and garment foreign trade enterprises also have the same feeling. The children's autumn and winter cotton feather jacket launched by a company owned by Sumida Co., Ltd. sold out in just two weeks after it was put on the shelves of the official mall of American clothing brand Skechers. It is understood that the company only started cooperation with Skechers in May this year. So far, the cumulative order volume has exceeded 20 million yuan.
According to customs statistics, from January to August, China's exports of clothing and clothing accessories totaled 684.09 billion yuan, accounting for about 28% of the total exports of labor-intensive products in the same period, and the year-on-year growth rate was also 7.9 percentage points higher than that of labor-intensive products in the same period.
You know, a few years ago, textile and garment foreign trade enterprises had to face the challenges of rising production costs, industrial transfer, order loss and so on. Now, the situation has reversed and a large number of orders have come in. Investigating the reason, industry analysts believe that, on the one hand, the export advantages of China's textile and apparel products are still there, and as foreign trade companies strengthen R & D, design and transformation and upgrading, international competitiveness will be further improved.
On the other hand, China has controlled the new coronary pneumonia epidemic earlier and better, and the industrial chain has basically recovered. In contrast, the epidemic in Southeast Asia and other places continues to spread repeatedly, and the ability to fulfill the order is not optimistic. This makes European, American, Japanese and Southeast Asian buyers transfer orders directly or indirectly to Chinese enterprises, and the return of orders has become an important factor in promoting the recovery of China's textile and garment industry.
This analysis can be supported by the data. Taking India and the United States as examples, data released by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles shows that in the first half of this year, in the import of Indian silk products, silk and other raw materials fell by 10.41 year-on-year, and manufactured products increased by 19.32 year-on-year. 46.08% comes from China. According to statistics from the US Department of Commerce, from January to July, the United States imported 0.757 billion US dollars of silk goods from China, an increase of 14.88 percent over the same period last year, accounting for 30.76 percent of global imports.
Sustainable development cannot rely solely on "return"
It is worth noting that, according to customs statistics, the cumulative year-on-year growth rate of China's exports of clothing and clothing accessories has gradually declined, with a year-on-year growth rate of 40.7 per cent in the first four months of this year, 31.1 per cent, 29.7 per cent and 22.5 per cent in the first five, six and seven months, and has fallen to 17.9 per cent in the first eight months, with the growth rate falling by more than half.
In this regard, the analysis of the Ministry of Industry of the China Garment Association believes that the growth rate of various indicators has slowed down significantly due to the continuous evolution of foreign epidemics, the occurrence of epidemics and floods in some parts of the country, and the gradual fading of the low base effect. At the same time, the intensification of market competition, the continuous high price of factors, the rise of logistics freight, the fluctuation of RMB exchange rate and other factors make the profit space of textile and garment foreign trade enterprises constantly squeezed, and the external situation faced by the garment industry is still not optimistic.
Zhuo Chuang information analysis that the global inflationary pressure, the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates is expected to heat up, the development of the epidemic is still uncertain, textile and clothing foreign trade enterprises to take orders generally cautious, and the late export situation generally hold a wait-and-see attitude, raw materials more with the use of mining. Thus, the textile and garment export market is still full of variables.
At the same time, it should also be noted that masks and other epidemic prevention materials have been included in the textile statistics, with the increase in foreign mask storage, market demand began to fall, will also inhibit the growth of textile products. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, from January to August, China exported 600.83 billion billion yuan of textiles including masks, a year-on-year decrease of 18.4 percent.
Kong Desheng, general manager of Nanda Fashion Knitting Co., Ltd., said that the company's output increased by 25% over the same period last year. With the expansion of production capacity, the output of goods continues to increase, and the problems are also increasing. "Shipping costs have formed a transmission mechanism from shipping companies to customers and then to foreign trade enterprises, with freight rates rising from several thousand dollars per container to more than 10,000 dollars per container now. At the same time, the unit price of products is generally low this year, and the profit margin per cargo is compressed at about 10%."
Relying solely on the return of orders can not drive the sustainable development of textile and garment exports, and the prospect is full of uncertainty and risk. Industry insiders believe that companies cannot blindly expand production capacity for low value-added orders, because these orders are obviously temporary. Textile enterprises need to strengthen R & D and design, accelerate the cultivation and transformation of new customers with the help of order return boom, and form a more stable and lasting cooperative relationship.
