Hong Kong emerging as top hub for textile exports

17 Oct '09

2 min read

Hong Kong is now the world's third-largest textile exporter; its export volume and value are second only to China and India. But demand fall in major overseas markets in the past few months, due to global economic downturn, has also taken its toll.

Hong Kong's textile and fabric makers are unlikely to stand firm on their own. Hong Kong's textile exports in 2008 amounted to US $12.2 billion, down 8.8 percent compared with 2007.

Hong Kong's textile exports from January to August of 2009 reached US $6.5 billion and decreased by 22.8 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Of which, textile yarn accounted for over 26 percent and woven and knitted cotton fabrics also accounted for a big chunk.

Mainland China has been the largest market for Hong Kong's textile exports, according to data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, from January to August of 2009, Hong Kong's total exports of textile fabrics to the Mainland formed 71.9 percent, followed by Vietnam (4.8 percent), Indonesia (3.4 percent), Bangladesh (2.9 percent), Cambodia (2.8 percent), Sri Lanka (1.8 percent) and the United States (1.5 percent) and so on.

As of the end of 2008, Hong Kong had over 870 textile manufacturers, more than 4,000 companies engaged in textile trade, and more than 30,000 employees and is also an internationally renowned business hub, with branches of all major textile and apparel companies present.

Hong Kong is now the largest export market for Taiwan's fabrics; statistics show that Taiwan's exports to Hong Kong from January to August of 2008 accounted for 16.3 percent of its total fabric exports, far higher than its other major export markets.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China