In March, China'S Textile And Clothing Exports Rebounded Strongly. Can The First Quarter Stabilize The Whole Year?

In March this year, China's textile and garment exports grew faster, and the strong recovery of the overall export growth in the first quarter. According to the data released by the General Administration of customs, in March, textiles and clothing exported by US $18 billion 180 million, up by 28.4% over the same period last year. Among them, exports of textiles amounted to 9 billion 520 million US dollars, an increase of 36.4%, and clothing exports of US $8 billion 660 million, an increase of 20.6%. In the first quarter, exports totaled 56 billion 330 million US dollars, down 1.8%. Among them, textile exports amounted to 26 billion 900 million US dollars, an increase of 3.9%, and clothing exports of US $29 billion 430 million, down 6.5%. The strong growth of exports in March reversed the two digit decline in industrial exports in the first February of this year, which led to a slight increase in the first quarter.

According to the RMB, exports of textiles and clothing in March were 122 billion 780 million yuan, up 36.5% over the same period last year. Among them, the export of textiles was 64 billion 320 million yuan, an increase of 45.1% over the previous year, and 58 billion 460 million yuan of clothing exports, an increase of 28.1%. In the first quarter, exports totaled 385 billion 210 million yuan, an increase of 3.3%, of which 183 billion 870 million yuan in textile exports, an increase of 9.3%, and 201 billion 340 million yuan in clothing exports, a decrease of 1.6%.

Since the beginning of this year, the industry forecasts that the whole year's economic operation will continue to be basically stable last year, but the pressure has increased. The uncertainty of the external environment has brought more unpredictability and uncontrollable factors to the export of the whole year, and export enterprises have generally reflected that buyers are cautious. Specifically, since January and February contain new year's day and Spring Festival, the export situation is more casual. Therefore, the overall data in the first quarter will be more valuable for judging the trend of export in the whole year. According to the previous year's data, the textile and garment export of China in the first quarter of 2017 was 54 billion 880 million US dollars, and the first quarter of 2018 was $57 billion 350 million, and the overall situation in the first quarter of this year was stable.

A large textile export enterprise reflects that, under the influence of external uncertainties, the procurement of overseas buyers slowed down in the first quarter and took a wait-and-see attitude. However, enterprises are optimistic about the progress of Sino US trade negotiations. Therefore, this year's production orders are expected to be loose and tight. A well-known manufacturing enterprise with the honor of "the best supplier in the world" has said that due to the uncertainty of the international trade environment, large international buyers have adjusted their strategic layout, demanding that Chinese production and processing enterprises spanfer some of their capacity to Southeast Asia and other places ahead of schedule. This trend also explains the reasons for the decline in the number of garment exports in China.

It is worth noting that from the perspective of the overall export structure of the industry, the amount of textile exports exceeded clothing in the month of March, accounting for more than half, which is the first time in recent years. Industry analysts believe that due to rising labor costs, regional trade preferences and rules of origin and other reasons, China's clothing production capacity to continue to shift overseas. The growth of textile exports is driven by the supply of raw materials supporting the spanfer of garment productivity.