Since this year, China's textile exports have increased. In the first 11 months of 2021, China's garment exports grew 25.4 percent year on year, and the export volume of China's home textile products exceeded $30 billion for the first time.

According to China customs statistics, from January to November 2021, China's apparel exports (including clothing accessories, the same below) reached us $159.27 billion, up 25.4% year on year and 15.9% compared with the same period in 2019, hitting a new high for the same period since 2015. In the first three quarters of this year, China's garment export growth was 47.4 percent, 35.7 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Since the fourth quarter, the growth rate of garment export has obviously picked up compared with that of the third quarter. In October, the export reached 16.94 billion US dollars, up 25% year on year. Exports in November reached 15.92 billion US dollars, up 23.6% year on year.

Knitwear contributes more to export growth, while woven garment exports rebound rapidly. Data showed that in the first 11 months of 2021, China exported $68.11 billion of knitted apparel, up 43.1 percent year on year and 23.2 percent on the same period in 2019. The unit price of exports increased 8.7 percent year on year. About two-thirds of overall apparel export growth came from knitwear. Woven clothing exports reached $61.29 billion, up 12.1% year on year and 6.1% over the same period in 2019. Export unit price increased 18.1% year on year. Since October, the export of woven clothing has grown rapidly, increasing by more than 25% for two consecutive months.

Data show that in the first 11 months of this year, China exported 7.12 billion US dollars of epidemic prevention clothing and protective suits for traditional Chinese medicine, down 55.7 percent year-on-year, and 9.8 billion US dollars of medical gloves, up 24.5 percent year-on-year.

Since the beginning of this year, China's garment exports to major markets have maintained high growth, and the export to the United States slowed down in November. Data show that from January to November 2021, China's apparel exports to the THREE major markets of the United States, the European Union and Japan increased by 38.1%, 22.6% and 8.5% respectively, and exports to countries along the belt and Road increased by 28.6%. Exports to ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America increased by 26.3%, 27.6%, 35.3% and 48.7%, respectively; exports to South Korea, Australia and Canada increased by 23.9%, 30.6% and 11.7%, respectively; exports to Britain and Russia decreased by 4.2% and 0.6%, respectively. "Led by strong US consumption, exports to the US accounted for a third of China's garment export growth in the first 11 months of this year, but growth slowed sharply to 11.1 per cent in November, 12.5 percentage points lower than global export growth." Said the relevant person in charge of garment Branch of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles.

What will be the trend of China's garment export in 2022? In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Garment Branch of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles believes that from next year's situation, first, the first and even the first half of 2022 overseas orders are still sufficient; Second, it is difficult to judge the impact of omicron virus, and it will take some time for overseas production capacity to recover and compete for orders in China. Thirdly, the bottleneck of shipping in the first half of the year is still difficult to be solved comprehensively, and the practice of buyers placing orders in advance will continue. Fourth, the domestic capacity is limited, cost rise, labor shortage, energy supply, domestic demand growth and other factors may have a cross impact on China's garment export.

While China's garment export is growing, in the first 11 months of this year, the capacity of China's home textile industry was fully released, and China's home textile export has maintained a rapid growth. Data show that from January to November 2021, China's exports of home textile products reached $31.3 billion, up 28.7 percent from the same period last year and 22.3 percent from the same period in 2019. "In the first 11 months of this year, exports exceeded the record high of 28.3 billion dollars in 2014 and surpassed the 30 billion dollars mark for the first time. Although the export scale is a new high, but the main enterprises reported that since the fourth quarter, corporate profits have narrowed significantly, mainly by factors of production costs and international logistics costs remain high and other factors." Said the relevant person in charge of the Household Textiles Branch of the Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles in China.

In the first 11 months of 2021, high value-added products such as bed products, curtains and blankets led the rapid export growth, with an increase of more than 28%, while towels, kitchen products and other products enjoyed relatively low growth, with an increase of 16% to 23%.

Since the beginning of this year, North America, Latin America and ASEAN led the recovery of international market demand. Data showed that in the first 11 months of 2021, China's exports of home textile products to major markets around the world maintained rapid growth. China's home textile exports to the US reached us $10.71 billion, up 31.6% year on year. China's exports of home textile products to the EU reached us $4.22 billion, up 27.9% year on year. It is worth noting that in November, the cumulative growth rate of China's home textile products to the US and European market has fallen, down 4.4 and 2.1 percentage points respectively. From the perspective of the intercontinental market, in the first 11 months, The export of China's home textile products to Latin America grew rapidly, increasing by 78.3%. The export to North America and ASEAN grew fast, with an increase of over 31%. Exports to Oceania grew more slowly at 18.8 per cent.