In 2020, affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, international trade in anti-epidemic materials such as masks and protective clothing was relatively active, while the scale of trade in consumer goods such as clothing was significantly reduced. Relying on the advantages of a complete industrial chain, the export competitiveness of my country’s textile industry has been steadily released, and the scale of textile and apparel exports in South Asia, Southeast Asia and other countries has decreased.
Terminal consumption in developed economies is sluggish, and my country’s market share remains stable
Major developed economies The import of body masks has increased significantly, which has led to a significant expansion in the scale of textile imports and a decrease in clothing imports. In 2020, the EU and Japan imported 20.62 billion euros (approximately US$24.6 billion) and 518.73 billion yen (approximately US$4.75 billion) of masks respectively from the world, accounting for 48.1% and 41.7% of the textile imports in the same period respectively, driving the EU and Japan’s textile imports from the world increased by 61.1% and 31.5% respectively year-on-year. The United States imported US$8.56 billion in masks, accounting for 25.1% of textile imports during the same period. The import value of other textile products other than masks decreased by 6.6% year-on-year (the United States did not announce the import value of masks in 2019, and it is impossible to calculate the increase in import value of all textiles including masks). speed).
Figure 1: Year-on-year growth rate of textile and clothing imports in major developed economies in 2020
Note: The 2020 textile and apparel import data released by the United States does not include masks, while the import data of the European Union and Japan include masks.
Data sources: U.S. Office of Textiles and Apparel, Eurostat, Japan Customs
The impact of the epidemic on the employment and income of residents in developed economies Substantial impacts, coupled with changes in consumption scenarios such as home quarantine and reduced social activities, have resulted in sluggish sales of non-essential consumer goods such as clothing. Clothing and apparel retail sales in the United States, Europe and Japan fell to historical lows in April 2020. Although they have gradually recovered since then, the epidemic in autumn and winter has once again impacted the retail market, and the decline in retail sales throughout the year is still large. In 2020, the cumulative retail sales of clothing and apparel in the United States was US$197.35 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 26%; the retail sales of textiles, clothing and apparel in Japan were approximately US$79.3 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 21.4%; the retail sales of textiles, clothing, and footwear in the EU decreased by 24.4% year-on-year. %. The scale of clothing imports has also declined. In 2020, the clothing imports of the United States, the European Union, and Japan decreased by 23.5%, 13.5%, and 15% respectively year-on-year.
Figure 2: Monthly year-on-year growth rate of clothing and apparel retail sales in major developed economies
Data sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Eurostat, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
With the overall stable situation of domestic epidemic prevention and control, China’s textile industry system is complete The competitive advantage has been highlighted, and it has become the only economy among the major textile and apparel producing countries in Asia to achieve positive growth in exports, and its international market share has increased accordingly. China Customs Express data shows that my country exported a total of US$291.22 billion in textiles and clothing in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%. According to relevant statistical data from the United States, Europe, and Japan, my country’s proportions in the total textile and apparel imports of the United States, the European Union, and Japan in 2020 were 33%, 43.9%, and 58.6% respectively, which were 0.2, 13.1, and 3.3 percentage points higher than in 2019 respectively. . Among them, my country’s mask products have an absolute advantage, accounting for 83%, 91.3%, and 89.9% of the mask imports from the United States, the European Union, and Japan respectively.
Figure 3: Share of China’s textile and apparel products in major import markets
Data sources: U.S. Office of Textiles and Apparel, Eurostat, Japan Customs
The scale of textile and apparel exports from other developing economies has generally shrunk
In 2020, the export scale of major textile and apparel producing countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia has shrunk to varying degrees. Relevant statistics show that Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia exported textiles and clothing to the world for US$29.71 billion, US$33.55 billion and US$5.86 billion respectively in 2020, with export values decreasing by 11.8%, 9.3% and 17.2% respectively year-on-year. India has exported US$21.67 billion in textiles and apparel in the 2020-2021 fiscal year (data from April 2020 to January 2021), a year-on-year decrease of 19.3%. In terms of product structure, from the available data, the textile exports of the above four countries are generally better than clothing, but only Bangladesh’s textile exports achieved a positive growth of 21.6%. The remaining three countries’ textile exports all declined to varying degrees, but the decline in clothing exports was more significant than that of textiles. The clothing exports of India and Bangladesh fell by 26.4% and 12.7% respectively year-on-year, and the decline rates were 13.6 and 34.3 percentage points higher than that of textiles.
Turkey is also among the top ten countries in the world in terms of textile and clothing exports. In 2020, it exported a total of US$27.08 billion in textiles and clothing, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%, of which textile exports decreased by 0.7% year-on-year. %, and clothing exports decreased by 6.3% year-on-year.
Figure 4: Growth rate of textile and apparel exports in some countries
Note: India’s fiscal year is from April to March of the following year. India’s export data in this chart is from April 2020 to January 2021.
Data sources: Vietnam Customs, Bangladesh Customs, Turkish Bureau of Statistics, Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Indonesian Bureau of Statistics</p
