In recent years, China’s apparel consumption has shifted from a single subsistence consumer demand to the consumption trend of fashion, culture, brand, and image. The apparel industry is facing pressure from transformation and upgrading, and the growth rate of the industry scale is declining. In 2019, China’s garment output reached 24.472 billion pieces, and industry revenue reached 1.6 trillion yuan.

 

1. China’s garment output reached 24.472 billion pieces in 2019

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2019, China’s apparel industry enterprises above designated size completed a total of 24.472 billion garments, an increase of 3.28% year-on-year.

 

2. China’s retail sales of apparel commodities reached 977.81 billion yuan in 2019

Judging from the domestic sales scale of the industry, from 2014 to 2019, China’s clothing retail sales as a whole fluctuated. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2019, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 41,164.9 billion yuan, an increase of 8.0% year-on-year. Among them, the retail sales of apparel commodities of units above designated size totaled 977.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%.

 

In addition, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2019, the online retail sales of physical goods nationwide was 8,523.95 billion yuan; of which, among the online retail sales of physical goods, wearable goods increased by 15.4% year-on-year.

 

3. The export scale of China’s garment industry is gradually shrinking

Judging from the export scale of the apparel industry, China is undoubtedly a major apparel exporting country, and the annual apparel export value exceeds 100 billion U.S. dollars, which is much larger than the apparel import value. However, in recent years, China’s clothing export value is gradually declining. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China, from 2014 to 2019, the scale of Chinese clothing exports is gradually shrinking. As of the end of December 2019, China’s cumulative exports of clothing and accessories reached USD 151.37 billion, down 4.08% year-on-year.

 

4. China’s apparel industry will achieve revenue of 1.6 trillion yuan in 2019

In 2019, the industry is under pressure. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2019, enterprises above the designated size in the apparel industry achieved cumulative operating income of 1,601.033 billion yuan, down 3.45% year-on-year; total profit was 87.283 billion yuan, down 9.75% year-on-year; operating profit margin was 5.45%, a decrease of 0.38 percentage points from the same period in 2018; the gross profit margin was 15.04%, an increase of 0.21 percentage points from the same period in 2018; the three expenses ratio was 8.91%, an increase of 0.20 percentage points from the same period in 2018.

 

Judging from the feedback information, the overall resumption of production of garment enterprises has shown a positive trend. The number of workers getting back to work accounted for the increase in the number of employed workers under normal production conditions compared to the previous period, but they still faced many difficulties and problems, such as the shortages of workers, unsynchronized resumption of work in upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, a sluggish market, reduced orders, poor transportation and logistics, and lack of protective resources.

 

It is understood that the current situation of resumption of work by large enterprises is better than that of small and medium-sized enterprises, but the gap has narrowed significantly: the proportion of resumption of work by large enterprises has reached 94.0%, which is 16.1 percentage points and 25.1 percentage points higher than that of medium and small enterprises, respectively.