China’s foreign trade of textiles and apparel totaled US$322.4 billion in 2024, up 2.5% year-on-year, according to China Customs data. China’s foreign trade in the textile industry withstood the multiple pressures of slowing global economic growth, intensifying trade protectionism and intertwined geopolitical conflicts to achieve steady growth.

Textiles and apparel exports exceeded the US$300 billion mark once again, reaching US$301.13 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 2.8%.

Figure 1: China’s Textiles and Apparel Exports in 2024 

Annual textile exports amounted to US$141.98 billion, growing 5.7% year over year. Apparel exports amounted to US$159.15 billion, up 0.4% year over year. The share of textiles in the industry’s exports grew by 1.2 percentage points compared with 2023.

Figure 2: China’s Textiles and Apparel Exports Share in 2024

The scale of imports was basically stable, and the rate of decline further narrowed compared with 2023. Textiles and apparel imports amounted to US$21.27 billion, down 2% year-on-year. Affected by the lack of demand in the end market, the structural upgrading of China’s textile industry to reduce dependence on imported raw materials and intermediate products and other factors, textiles imports amounted to US$10.83 billion, dropped by 7.8% year-on-year. Influenced by the release of domestic market potential and the upgrading of consumer demand, apparel imports increased by 4.7% year-on-year to US$10.44 billion. Among them, the amount of apparel imports from ASEAN leaped 17.3% year-on-year.

China’s textiles and apparel exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” Initiative amounted to US$161.7 billion, up 1.7% year-on-year and accounting for 53.7% of the total. That to RCEP member countries amounted to US$85.9 billion, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year.

As for major markets situation, ASEAN has been the top export destination of China’s textile industry for three consecutive years. China’s textiles and apparel exports to ASEAN amounted to US$53.18 billion in 2024, up by 6.8% year-on-year, accounting for 17.7% of the total. Textiles and apparel exports to the United States amounted to US$50.96 billion, surging 9.1% year-on-year. That to the European Union amounted to US$40.04 billion, seeing an increase of 5.6% year-on-year. Textiles and apparel exports to Japan reached US$15.72 billion, declining by 7.6% year-on-year, but the decline rate continued to narrow. And the export growth to Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, and Egypt is higher than the global growth rate.

Figure 3: The Share of Major Countries/Regions in the Export Market of China’s Textile Industry

In terms of major export categories, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are the top three major markets for China’s textile yarn exports, accounting for 10.5%, 8.7%, and 8% of the total textile yarn exports, which increased by 12.6% to 48.4% year-on-year. Meanwhile, exports to India plummeted by 31% year-on-year. Textile fabric exports to ASEAN amounted to US$24.56 billion, increasing by 11% year-on-year and accounting for about 35% of China’s total textile fabric exports worldwide. That to Bangladesh and India leaped by 23.7% and 8.6% year-on-year, respectively, with a market share of 10.1% and 3.2%.

The United States continues to be China’s largest export destination for textile products, with US$13.53 billion worth of exports in 2024, surging by 11% year-on-year and accounting for 23.1% of China’s total textile product exports. Exports to ASEAN increased by 6.4% year-on-year, accounting for 17.3%.

The United States is the largest export destination for China’s apparel and accessories exports, increasing by 2 percentage points to 22.7% of global apparel exports in 2023. Its export value increased by 8.7% year-on-year to US$36.2 billion. Apparel exports to the European Union amounted to US$27.75 billion, up by 4.8% year-on-year.

From the perspective of regional export performance in China, the eastern region’s export advantage is further consolidated: the annual exports of textiles and garments of Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province increased by 7.4% and 8.7% year-on-year. The central and western region exports as a whole are facing certain pressure, but some provinces and cities still performed pretty well: Hubei Province, Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province, and other provinces and cities exports fell by 1.4% to 19.8% year-on-year; the exports of Guangxi increased by 4.1% year-on-year. Exports of the northeast region achieved steady growth: the year-on-year growth of textiles and apparel exports in Heilongjiang and Jilin reached 25.1% and 16.1% respectively.

Source: CHINA TEXTILE LEADER Express