China's textiles and apparels market weak in H1 2022

In the first half of 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war impacted the world economy and led to higher prices of energy; Higher-than-expected inflation in the world, especially in the United States and major European economies, has led to a tightening of the financial environment; regional public health problems such as COVID-19 epidemic and monkeypox have disturbed economic activities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its forecast for world economic growth in 2022 and 2023 to 3.2% and 2.9% respectively, after lowering its forecast for world economic growth in April.

The demand for textiles and apparels was impacted by weaker economy.

In January-June 2022, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 21043.17 billion Yuan, with a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 0.7%.

Retail sales of garments, footwear, hats and knitwear scored at 628.17 billion Yuan in H1 2022 in above-designated enterprises, down 6.5% year on year. The retail sales of garments of enterprises above designated size amounted to 446.26 billion Yuan, down 8% year on year. Both were much higher than the total decline in social consumer goods.

During Jan to Jun 2022, the online retail sales of goods scored at  6300.7 billion Yuan, up 3.1% year on year (with YOY growth at 23.2% at the same period of last year),  with that of physical goods scored at 5449.3 billion Yuan, up 5.6% year on year (with YOY change at 18.7% during the same period of 2021). Among the physical goods, retail sales of clothing increased by 2.4% year-on-year (with YOY growth at 24.1% in the same period of last year), with that of food and goods increased by 16.7% and 5.1% respectively (with YOY change at 23.5% and 16.7% respectively in the corresponding period of 2021).

Under RMB basis, in Jan-Jun, 2022, textiles and apparels export amounted to 1007.15 billion Yuan, up by 10.8% y-o-y, of which exports of textiles were 490.5 billion yuan, up 10.3% on the year, and apparel export reached 516.65 billion Yuan, up by 11.2% y-o-y. Under USD basis, in Jan-Jun, 2022, the trade of textiles and apparels was 156.49 billion US dollars, up 11.7% year-on-year. Among them, exports of textiles were US$76.32 billion, up 11.3% on the year. Exports of apparels were US$80.17 billion, up 12% on the year.

In the first half of 2022, export value of textiles and apparels rose by more than 10%, covering some premium factor. In addition to yarn, the YOY change of export value of most varieties were higher than that of export quantity. As for the YOY change of export unit price, it averaged at around 13.5%. Except for fur leather and other apparels, the growth rate of the rest of the products were all higher than 8%.

In Jan-Jul, 2022, prices of PFY, NFY, cotton and VFY rose by 16%, 7%, 31% and 8% respectively while that of spandex dropped by near 15%.

As for domestic sales, the sales volume weakened more on the year.

In the first half of 2022, domestic sales and export volume of textiles and apparels both declined on the year.

As for the change in different export destinations, the growth rate of Europe, America and ASEAN was tolerable while export of textiles and apparels to Japan weakened on the year. Exports of apparels to Europe and US saw relatively high growth rate and the YOY change of textiles and apparels to the ASEAN was both higher than the average level.

In the first half of 2022, above 50% of apparels were exported to Europe, US and Japan, not changing much. The proportion of apparel exports to the EU, US and Japan from China was at 20%, 24% and 8% respectively in H1 2022, which was at 19%, 24% and 9% respectively in 2021. 54% of China's textiles were exported to the "Belt and Road Initiative country" in H1 2022 (the proportion was at 50% in 2021).

Exports of knitted apparels were better than those of woven ones. Among textiles, exports of yarns and fabrics were better than those of made-ups.

Exports of chemical products were better than those of cotton ones, no matter knitted apparels and woven apparels and yarns and fabrics.