Since the outbreak, global textile production and orders have dropped, and the sudden drop in turnover will turn into a longer-term downturn. In the first quarter, the country’s total exports of textiles and clothing totaled US$45.264 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 17.7%. At this stage, my country’s textile and clothing exports The level of decline even exceeded that of 2009 after the financial crisis, and the industry will continue to be under pressure in the second quarter.
1 Keqiao’s foreign trade fell to the “freezing point”, and enterprises incurred living expenses Raise workers
On April 8, the 2020 China Textile City Cloud Exhibition hosted by the China Textile City Construction Management Committee, Keqiao District Commerce Bureau, and China Textile City Group was launched . Affected by the epidemic, offline exhibitions such as the Spring Textile Expo will be postponed. The textile industry plays an important role in Keqiao. Last year, Keqiao District achieved foreign trade exports of 86.75 billion yuan, of which textile exports accounted for more than 90% of the district’s total exports. Every March and April, Keqiao textile trade will usher in the “Little Indian Spring”. Especially with the help of the Spring Textile Expo, the “Gold, Three, Silver and Four” market has become a routine. However, with the impact of the global epidemic, Keqiao’s foreign trade suddenly fell to the “freezing point”.
“Textile foreign trade orders have been canceled or postponed one after another.” This is a common experience of more than 2,000 foreign trade companies located in Keqiao office buildings. Wu Haiming, who runs a foreign trade company in the Ginza International Business Center in Keqiao District, said that the domestic epidemic was initially under control in March, and the company recalled workers to prepare for a big fight. Unexpectedly, the epidemic abroad became more severe, causing 90% of his company’s orders to be canceled or postponed. As soon as we resumed work and production, we were forced to press the “pause button.” Orders are gone, profits are gone, and now employee placement, office building rent, etc. have become “heart problems.”
The cancellation or postponement of foreign trade orders has affected every link of the industrial chain. The gray fabric market in China Textile City was deserted, and many business households had not received a single business order for several days in a row. Wang Weixiang, a business owner of the gray cloth market, said that the market was very popular in March of previous years, and their store could sell tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of meters of gray cloth in a day. At present, foreign trade orders are gone, customers are no longer coming, and there are zero transactions in the store. According to incomplete statistics, the current daily passenger flow of China Textile City has shrunk from 100,000 to 10,000, and the decline in popularity is obvious.
The gray cloth market in China Textile City is deserted, and some stores are closed
The impact on upstream production enterprises such as textile printing and dyeing is wider and deeper. Many textile printing and dyeing companies have fallen into the situation of “having no rice to cook”. Many textile printing and dyeing companies in Anchang, Ma’an and other towns have chosen to take turns or take temporary holidays. The reporter visited well-known textile printing and dyeing companies such as “Red, Green and Blue” and “Huatong Color Textile”. When contacted for interviews, they all chose to avoid it. “At this time, people say that business is good and people laugh at it; if business is not good, they feel a little discouraged. But it is undeniable that the loss of foreign trade orders has dealt a huge blow to our upstream companies.” said the person in charge of a well-known textile company.
Orders are cancelled, workshops stop production, and workers lose their jobs. The workers who became “hot cakes” in early March are now becoming a placement problem for enterprises.
During the visit, the reporter learned that some large-scale textile printing and dyeing companies chose to pay guaranteed minimum wages to retain workers. Luo Guoyan, chairman of Cathay Printing and Dyeing, said that after foreign trade orders were cancelled, they chose to let employees take turns. He judged that according to the current epidemic situation, the company will soon face a suspension of production. But he believes that once the epidemic is over, foreign trade orders will catch up. In order to avoid the difficulty of recruiting workers again, he has not laid off employees for the time being. Instead, he will pay a minimum salary of 1,800 yuan per person per month to retain them.
2 Employees are looking for part-time job subsidies, but no one dares to ask for them
The epidemic has not only hit textile foreign trade orders, but even the seemingly unaffected domestic trade market has seen orders hard to come by. It seems that “lack of orders” is the main theme of the current textile industry. Without fabric orders from all over the world, all textile factories have rarely entered a state of “New Year’s holiday” this spring.
Production reductions, production suspensions, and rotational breaks have been happening in many textile-related factories as early as half a month ago. Today, the number of large and small factories joining them continues to increase. . The factory cannot produce normally, and the biggest impact is on the large number of textile workers.
Under normal circumstances, factories will not fire workers easily. On the one hand, labor disputes are prone to occur, and on the other hand, it is not conducive to production after resumption of work. Therefore, most factories will provide certain subsidies to workers even if there is a shortage of orders, unsustainable orders, and a need to suspend production and take holidays. The main purpose is to “lock in employees” to prevent a wave of resignations.
<pThe cumulative exports of fabrics were US$22.694 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14.6% (a year-on-year decrease of 12.7% in RMB); the cumulative exports of clothing were US$22.570 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 20.6% (a year-on-year decrease of 18.9% in RMB).
From the perspective of product categories, industry exports continue to show a trend of differentiation. According to customs statistics, the year-on-year decline in exports of textiles, including yarn, fabrics, home textiles, industrial and other finished products, rebounded by 5.3 percentage points from the previous two months. The decline in exports of downstream clothing products continued to deepen compared with the previous two months. 0.6 percentage points.
In March, my country’s textile and apparel exports were US$15.43 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 12.9% (a year-on-year decrease of 10.0% in RMB). Among them, textile exports were US$8.922 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4.9% (a year-on-year decrease of 1.7% in RMB); clothing exports that month were US$6.508 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 22.0% (a year-on-year decrease of 19.3% in RMB).
An analysis by China Textile Federation Industrial Economics Research Institute pointed out: Judging from the textile and clothing exports over the years, due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, the current level of decline in my country’s textile and clothing exports has even exceeded the financial crisis. 2009 after it happened. According to statistics, in 2009, the country’s exports of goods fell by 16.0%, and the exports of textiles and clothing fell by 10.07%. In the first quarter of 2020, the country’s exports of goods fell by 13.3%, and the decline in textiles and clothing exports deepened to 17.70%.
Analysis from the China Textile International Capacity Cooperation Enterprise Alliance believes that looking forward to the second quarter, affected by the spread of the new crown epidemic around the world, my country’s textile industry will “stabilize foreign trade” and ” “Stabilizing employment” faces severe challenges. The sudden cancellation or postponement of overseas orders has brought a high degree of uncertainty to the operations of domestic textile companies that have resumed work and production, highlighting various practical problems in terms of market demand, inventory, cash flow, etc. It is necessary for the government, enterprises and industry organizations to work together to take a variety of effective measures in a timely manner to win the “war for survival” in the second quarter and enhance the resilience of the industry’s future development.
Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Research Institute, believes that although the foreign trade situation improved in the first quarter, there will still be great pressure on future growth. Affected by the global epidemic, external demand remains weak. In particular, China’s major trading partners, the European Union and the United States, have become the hardest-hit areas by the epidemic. Orders held by some foreign trade companies have been postponed or canceled, and new orders have been affected. Exports in the consumer industry have been greatly affected in the short term, and the foreign trade industry is still in contraction. The challenges remain huge. </p
