'Chinese competitiveness dips in low-end textile items'

03 Jul '13

2 min read

The global competitiveness of Chinese textile firms, especially in low-end products has declined markedly in recent years, according to Wang Tiankai, chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC).

Addressing a conference to discuss the implementation of China’s ‘Going Out’ strategy, as outlined in the country’s Twelfth Five Year Plan, Mr. Tiankai said the share of China’s textile fibre processing industry in the world has risen from 25 percent in 2000 to about 55 percent in 2012.

Similarly, the share of China in global textile export volume has risen from 15 percent to approximately 36 percent during the same period, which shows that the Chinese textile industry is ‘going out’ in practice.

However, the global competitiveness of the Chinese textile industry has declined markedly in recent years due to a rise in production costs and the prices of domestic cotton being higher than global prices, he said.

On the other hand, the textile industries in Southeast Asian countries and other developing nations are developing rapidly due to low labour costs, which in some countries are about one-third of the costs in China, he added.

In view of increasing resource and environmental constraints as well as increasing international market competition, the Chinese textile industry needs to make full use of international high-end talent, technology, channels and other resources, by ‘going out’ to seek better allocation of resources and to build a more efficient global supply chain, Mr. Tiankai said.

The future of the Chinese textile industry would depend on the ability to effectively improve cross-border allocation of resources, build integrated service platform to guard against investment risks, and the creation of a better policy environment by the Government, according to Mr. Tiankai.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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