From January to October, the nationwide 37,000 textile enterprises above designated size realized a total industrial output value of 4.68129 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%, the growth rate dropped 17 percentage points and 3.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year and the first season respectively, and up 0.4 percentage points against January to September.

In the aspect of major categories of products, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to October, the production of the enterprises above designated size in chemical fiber, cloth, and apparel was 31.629 million tons, 52.35 billion meters and 21.91 billion respectively, seeing a year-on-year growth of 11.8%, 9.9% and 6.4% respectively, while the growth rate decreased by 3.7 percentage points, 3.5 percentage points and 3.0 percentage points respectively compared with the same period last year. The investigation of key enterprises by China Cotton Textile Association showed that the yarn production saw a year-on-year decrease of 2.3% from January to October.

 

From January to October, the retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats and knitting products increased 17.9 percent, 6.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year while 3.3 percentage points and 1.0 percentage points higher than the first season and the first half year respectively. After deducting the price factors, the actual growth rate of clothing retail was 14.1%, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6 percentage points, and up 3.5 percentage points and 1.0 percentage points compared with the first season and the first half year respectively. In October, the sales of hundreds of nationwide large retail clothing increased 14.2%, witnessing a year-on-year growth of 2.1 percentage points.

 

From January to October, China’s textile and apparel exports totalized $216.14 billion, a year-on-year growth of 2.5%. The growth rate of total exports achieved a year-on-year positive growth in September and October, which reverses the negative export growth rate from January to August. But the export pressure is still large, from January to October, the exports volume of China’s textile and apparel declined 0.9% year-on-year, down 2.0 percentage points compared with the same period last year. And from January to September, China’s market share in America saw a slight increase compared with the same period last year, while the market share in the European Union and Japan decreased by 0.8 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points respectively.

 

Since this year, the profitability of the industry has gradually stabilized driven by the improvement of industrial labor efficiency. From January to September, the productivity of textile enterprises above designated size realized 573 thousand yuan/person, an increase of 13.8%. The total profit realized 181.22 billion yuan, increased by 0.4%, up 2.2 percentage points and 2.4 percentage points compared with the first season and the first half year respectively. Though the growth rate was still lower than 32.1 percentage of the same period last year, this was the first positive growth of the monthly cumulative profit since this year. The sales profit rate reached 4.5%, down 0.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

 

The current textile industry domestic demand realized a steady growth compared with the beginning of the year. It is expected that the domestic textile and apparel market will continue to maintain a steady growth with the gradually stabilized domestic economic environment. Though the international economic environment is still uncertain, the possibility of continued substantial deterioration is relatively small; the international market demand is expected to be in a bottoming process. Overall, the whole textile industry is in a steady process, the industry profits and exports have both achieved positive growth recently.

Since the basis of gradual stabilization of the industry is not very strong, any slight changes in domestic and international economic environment could make the industry in a tough situation again. The main reasons include the following four aspects.

First, the recovery of the current industry economic indicators is affected by the base effect and the complement of commercial enterprises’ inventory in a large extent.

Second, the continually widened cotton price difference at home and abroad is one of the main factors impact the textile industry operation this year. It is expected that the cotton price difference will continue to trouble textile enterprises without a specific way to solve the problem.

Third, the resellers of garment industry keep wait-and-see. Clothing is the largest terminal industry of the entire industry, if the garment industry lacks the power to pick up, and the recovery of the whole industry will obviously in a difficult situation.

Finally, the statistics mainly reflect the above designated size enterprises, while the enterprises below designated size still account for a large proportion in China’s textile industry. The survey shows that the textile enterprises below designated size are in a more difficult situation at present.

 

 

That solve the problems of the cotton price difference at home and abroad is not only the important measure to speed up the stabilization of the recovery of the textile industry, but also an effective means to prevent further decline in the international market share of China’s textile and garment industry. It is suggested that effective measures should be carried out to reduce the cotton price difference as soon as possible, in order to lighten the burden on the cotton textile enterprises.

 

Since SMEs are the main force to absorb employment in textile industry, various national policies and measures for SMEs should be continually implemented. The difficulties faced by SMEs should always be concerned about, in order to solve problems for SMEs timely and to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs.

 

To support the implementation of technological improvements and innovation continually not only improve the added value of industry products, but also fundamentally enhance the competitiveness of the industry.