Overview Of China Fabric Import And Export From January To October 2023

Since the fourth quarter, there has been a noticeable overall recovery in the Chinese economy, with a slight easing of external political pressures. Global apparel inventories continue to decline, leading to increased flexibility in order placements by buyers, subsequently driving the recovery of exports of intermediate goods.

From a macro perspective, the trend toward nearshoring and the "decoupling" of supply chains has resulted in orders concentrating with core suppliers and diversifying to more source countries. Consequently, the regions and countries exporting intermediate goods are gradually showing a trend toward diversification.

Examining industry characteristics, fabric enterprises are gradually extending the vertically integrated model of mature domestic industrial chains overseas. Simultaneously, this trend is encouraging more upstream enterprises in various industry chains to go abroad for complementary capacity deployment. Throughout this internationalization process, there will remain a high level of dependence on Chinese textile raw materials in the industry chain.

At the micro-level, companies need to possess an efficient industrial chain, leading R&D capabilities, high-quality product standards, stable and fast delivery times, as well as sustained investment in ESG. This is essential for them to have the opportunity to become deep cooperative partners with brands or high-quality raw material suppliers.

From January to October 2023, the total import and export volume of Chinese fabrics was $55.98 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4%. Among this, the export volume was $53.68 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 10.1%, and the import volume was $2.3 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6%.

In October 2023, the total import and export volume of Chinese fabrics was $5.42 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%. Among this, the export volume was $5.17 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%, and the import volume was $0.25 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4.2%, with a narrowing import decline.

China's fabric trade is predominantly export-oriented, accounting for nearly 90%. In recent years, as China's independent R&D capabilities for fabrics have strengthened, the production of some high-end fabrics that were previously monopolized by Europe, the United States, and Japan has been achieved domestically. Consequently, China's fabric imports have declined year by year.