Affected by the epidemic, production capacity in some parts of Southeast Asia has not yet recovered. In contrast, China's epidemic prevention and control situation is basically stable, so foreign orders continue to return, and domestic textile and apparel exports are becoming hot.

At the China National Textile and Apparel Council's Economic Operation Analysis Meeting for the first half of 2021 held in Beijing recently, a set of data given by the relevant person in charge showed that my country's textile and apparel exports continued to grow from January to July 2021, with a total export volume of US$168.35 billion. , An increase of 7.8% year-on-year, 2.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year, and the two-year average growth rate was 6.7%. Among them, from January to July, my country's textile exports were US$80.25 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 10.8%; but clothing exports were US$88.10 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.9%.

Xu Xiaoyuan, deputy secretary-general of the China Cotton Textile Industry Association, explained that the decline in textiles was mainly due to the high export base of anti-epidemic textiles during the same period last year, and the clothing foreign trade continued to improve.

Chen Xiaoqian, an analyst at the China Textile Federation Industrial Economic Research Institute, further explained that in 2020, the demand for epidemic prevention materials will increase the demand for textiles, which will cause the proportion of textiles in export products to rise sharply, up to 60.3%; Textiles accounted for 47.7% and clothing accounted for 52.3%, which was basically adjusted to the pre-epidemic structure. Among them, the United States, the European Union, and Japan have seen a significant reduction in the import of masks from China.

Wu Jia works for a large American department store chain, and she is responsible for the company's procurement business in China. In the epidemic last year, this well-known established company temporarily closed hundreds of its department stores and also suspended its orders in China. However, as the U.S. department store business returned to normal, Wu Jia said that the company purchased knitted apparel. Orders for home textiles and home textiles have gradually recovered and picked up. "Part of the reason is the return of orders from Southeast Asia, and another part of the reason is that the US has more money and demand." She told reporters.

So where do these backflow orders come from? The severe epidemic situation in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Cambodia has caused some textile and clothing orders to continue to flow to China, and the operating rate of some production plants has also risen sharply, which has increased exports in the first half of this year. "As far as I know, some of our long-term cooperative suppliers are even facing the problem of insufficient production capacity." Wu Jia revealed.

Part of the textile foreign trade orders is lost by India. In recent years, Indian companies have posed great challenges to Chinese companies in the low-end and mid-end home textile products. India is particularly good at low-end and middle-end projects, with cheap raw materials and low labor costs. In addition, China has tariff restrictions. Many, such as the white towels commonly found in restaurants. Taking towels as an example, the price difference between Chinese and Indian products is between 10% and 30%, which does not include additional tariffs imposed due to trade frictions. Nowadays, under the influence of the new crown epidemic, the Indian textile industry has been hit hard, and some orders have been transferred to China in consideration of safety.

However, some senior practitioners in textile and apparel companies reminded that the issue of backflow orders needs to be viewed more rationally and in the long-term, because countries such as India have not completely lost their combat effectiveness. Some international customers are still continuing to place orders, but considering the risks, they seek to back up in China.

And although the textile and apparel industry has recovered rapidly in foreign trade, there are also hidden worries behind it, and it is difficult for major companies to make profits.

Yang Shibin, president of Shanghai Jialinjie Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jialinjie", 002486.SZ), told reporters that orders this year have indeed increased rapidly. However, he also said that from the perspective of efficiency, due to the increase in various costs such as raw materials, from the perspective of efficiency, it has not increased at the same time. "It's not very optimistic. It should be said that the pressure on business operations is still not small."

"Our situation is that the price is rising, and the previously negotiated orders are not allowed to increase. New orders can be increased, but the range is controlled. Because it is a business partnership, it is impossible for the factory to absorb all the price increases for customers. Now Transportation is relatively tight. There is a shortage of boxes, ships, and freight costs. Export operations have become more difficult." In Wu Jia's view, Chinese factories should also worry about the Southeast Asian epidemic. "Someday there will be stability, and orders will go out again. Anyway, when I came into contact, I felt that the life of domestic factories was not easy."

Zhang Xicheng, vice president of the China Knitting Industry Association, also pointed out in the aforementioned economic operation analysis meeting that operating costs are relatively high, and business pressure still exists. He said that the cost pressure of knitted garment manufacturing enterprises is higher than that of knitted fabric manufacturing enterprises, indicating that upstream raw material prices cannot be effectively transmitted, and brand promotion has a long way to go.

According to Zhang Xicheng, as the global epidemic prevention and control situation improves in the second half of the year, external production capacity will gradually recover. At the same time, affected by various factors such as freight, raw material prices, and industrial safety, the export growth rate of the knitting industry in the second half of the year is expected to be similar to that of the first half of the year. The ratio will slow down.

Source of this article: CBN official account, creators in the field of high-quality finance