According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs yesterday, from January to May this year, the total exports of textiles and clothing nationwide totaled USD 96.16 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 1.17% (an increase of 2.16% in RMB), which was 8.8 percentage point less than the previous four months. (the growth rate picked up 9.58 percentage points in RMB). Among them, the cumulative export of textiles was USD 57.95 billion, an increase of 21.3% year-on-year (an increase of 25.5% year-on-year in RMB); the cumulative export of apparel was USD 38.21 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 22.8% (a year-on-year decrease of 20.3% in RMB).

Exports of masks continued to drive textile exports to maintain high growth in May

In May, China’s textile exports were USD 20.65 billion, driven by the export of masks. This month’s textile exports increased significantly by 79.2% year-on-year (88.0% year-on-year increase in RMB), and maintained a high growth under the high year-on-year growth of 51% last month.

According to official statistics, from March 1 to May 31 this year, my country exported 70.6 billion masks and 340 million protective clothing to 200 countries and regions around the world. According to customs data, from January to April, my country’s cumulative export of masks was USD 8.855 billion, and the total export of protective clothing was USD 801 million. Masks have become an important support for the export of textile and apparel industry since this year.

Apparel export situation remains grim in the second quarter

In May this year, my country’s clothing exports were USD 8.91 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 24.4% (20.7% year-on-year in Renminbi), a decline narrowed by 3.3 percentage points compared with that of last month, but the overall situation is still at a historically low stage.

At present, the demand in major international consumer markets continues to be sluggish. For example, the retail sales of apparel in the United States in April fell sharply by 78.8% month-on-month, and fell sharply by 89.3% year-on-year, the biggest decline in history. It is expected that my country’s apparel export situation will be more severe in the second quarter of this year.