GENEVA — China’s dynamic textiles and apparel industry posted double-digit gains in the value of its exports in the first 11 months of 2005, reaching $104.9 billion, according to World Trade Organization statistics.
China’s exports of textiles increased 23.8 percent to $37.4 billion and exports of apparel rose 20 percent to $67.5 billion, compared with the same period last year. Chinese experts and officials attributed the strong export performance to the global competitiveness of many of the enterprises in the sector.
A report by China’s National Bureau of Statistics released Dec. 30 said despite the influence of detrimental factors such as trade tensions, “the momentum of steady growth in the export of the whole textile trade was maintained by means of industrial progress and sharpening the competitive edge of deeply processing enterprises.”
Moreover, a forecast by the China Association of Textile Industry cited by the bureau estimated total exports of textiles and apparel at $116 billion in 2005, and total sales of about 2 trillion yuan, or $241 billion at current exchange.
However, the pace of growth on the import front for textiles and apparel to the 1.3 billion population country was relatively weak. China’s imports of textiles from January to November expanded 1.7 percent to $14 billion, compared with the same period last year, and imports of apparel increased 4.1 percent to $1.5 billion.
WTO analysts attributed the slowdown in textile imports largely to the relocation of textiles manufacturing plants by South Korean, Taiwanese and other traditional suppliers to China.