China's textile industry performed a slowing trend in January to April (China)

China Textile Industry Association held a meeting of analysis on Chinese textile situation in January to April and forecasting 2012 trend of China's textile industry situation on May 22.

Data showed that China's textile industry performed a slowing trend in January to April, its specific performance was that production growth slowed down; structural adjustment pace of investment further accelerated; price increase of textile and garment exports narrowed; export volume experienced negative growth; growth rate of industry profits declined obviously.

In the first half of 2012, the industry continues to face higher external risks, it will still be the top priority for the industry to further improve risk control and response capacity.

Production remained slow growth. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January to April this year, China's textile enterprises above designated size realized a total industrial output value of 1.67706 trillion Yuan, up 13.1 percent year on year.
Of which chemical fiber increased 13.1 percent, yarn rose 15 percent, cloth gained 12.8 percent, clothing climbed 7.8 percent, all textiles and garment basically maintained a slow growth momentum.

The industry experienced slowdown in growth rate of investment, new projects saw negative growth trend. In January to April, China's textile industry accumulated investment of 184.59 billion Yuan in fixed assets, an increase of 18 percent year on year; new projects were 4310, a decrease of 5.6 percent year on year.

Growth rate of textile prices narrowed, export volume experienced negative growth. Customs Express Data showed that in January to April, national textile and apparel exports registered US $68.81 billion, an increase of 0.5 percent year on year. It was estimated that in January to March, export prices of China's textile and garment increased 4.5 percent year on year. After discounting price factor, export volume of textile and apparel in January to March fell 1 percent year on year.

Growth in domestic market still provides important support for the development of the industry. In January to April, retail sales of above designated clothing companies increased by 15.6 percent year on year, the growth rate fell 7.9 percent from a year earlier. Domestic sales of textile enterprises above designated size increased by 14.8 percent year on year; the proportion of domestic sales accounted for 84.3 percent of total sales value, the rate increased by 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Industry profit growth rate dropped significantly. In January to March, above-scale textile enterprises realized total profits of 53.7 billion Yuan, down 1.8 percent year on year, growth rate down 55.3 percent from a year earlier. Among them, chemical fiber industry, cotton industry showed negative growth, their profits in January to March fell 46.6 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, year on year.

Factors and trends influencing the industry in 2012. Pressures of weak demand in international market sill obviously exist, more uncertainties will affect export growth of the industry; continuous improvement of income levels of urban and rural residents, plus policy support and other factors, will boost steady growth of domestic market, but growth rate will be lower than the previous year; volatility of raw materials market and poor supply chain system will be main risks faced the industry. In the situation of poor external demand and slowing domestic demand, the space for companies to resolve a variety of cost and risk factors will be smaller, while their operating pressure will be more prominent.