International news: China's domestic demand market for clothing consumption has declined

According to data from the China Bureau of Statistics, China's sales of clothing, shoes, hats, needles, and textiles above the designated size in March were 79.1 billion yuan, down 17.6 percentage points year-on-year and 22.8 percentage points year-on-year.

In March, multiple regions across the country, including Shanghai, experienced repeated outbreaks, significantly affecting the sales of clothing products, and placing significant pressure on the domestic clothing demand market; In June, although the epidemic situation in various regions was under control, it is expected that the market's consumption power will hardly improve. In the face of rising prices, residents' consumption of non essential goods will significantly decrease, and it is difficult for Chinese residents to make significant changes in their consumption of clothing in the short term.

Decreasing Consumption of Textiles in China by Overseas Markets

According to customs data, in March this year, China's textile and clothing exports reached 23.59 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7 percentage points; From January to March this year, China's textile and clothing exports reached 95.84 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.6% year-on-year. Among them, textile exports reached 48.82 billion US dollars, up 11.1% year-on-year; Clothing exports reached US $47.02 billion, up 6.2% year-on-year.

Although monthly and cumulative data showed a year-on-year growth pattern, the growth rate slowed down. In terms of segmentation, the growth rate of China's textile and clothing exports in March (1.6% in US dollars) fell 15.2 percentage points compared to March; From January to March, the growth of China's textile and clothing exports decreased by 2.6 percentage points compared to the growth rate of exports in the first quarter. Since the second quarter, the textile and clothing industry has been affected by multiple outbreaks, and foreign trade has been under significant downward pressure.

Spinning volume of textile enterprises has decreased, resulting in a serious backlog of finished yarn

According to Chinese statistics, in March of this year, China's yarn production was 2.21 million tons, down 8.9 percentage points year-on-year; From January to March this year, China's yarn production was 8.703 million tons, down 1.6 percentage points year-on-year.

However, according to the survey conducted by the mysteel cotton team, at the beginning of March this year, yarn inventory in major cities in China was 29.8 days, with a month-on-month increase of 5.6 days and a year-on-year increase of 16.5 days. Inventory was at a high level in recent three years. According to the latest research data, at the beginning of June, yarn inventory in major cities in China was 27.3 days, which was 2.5 days lower than that in March, but still 3.4 days higher than the average in recent three years (23.9 days from 2019 to 2021).

In the monthly and annual comparison of yarn production, there is a downward trend, and the inventory of finished yarn in textile enterprises is still at a high level, which is difficult to decline. The risk of inventory expansion in textile enterprises is high, and pessimism is fermenting.

Overall, the current situation in China's textile industry, such as excessive supply, high prices of raw materials, weak demand, and upside down profits, indicates that China's cotton prices will be under long-term pressure.