In 2020, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia virus, the international trade of anti-epidemic materials such as masks and protective clothing will be active, and the scale of consumer goods such as clothing will be significantly reduced. Relying on the advantages of a complete industrial chain, the export competitiveness of my country's textile industry has been steadily released, and the export scale of textiles and garments in South Asia, Southeast Asia and other countries has decreased.

　　The terminal consumption of developed economies is sluggish, and my country’s market share remains stable

　　 Imports of masks in major developed economies have increased substantially, which has led to a significant increase in textile imports and a decrease in clothing imports. In 2020, the European Union and Japan imported 20.62 billion euros (approximately US$24.6 billion) and 518.73 billion yen (approximately US$4.75 billion) of masks from the world, respectively, accounting for 48.1% and 41.7% of textile imports in the same period, stimulating the EU and Japan. Japan’s global imports of textiles increased by 61.1% and 31.5% respectively year-on-year. The U.S. imported masks of US$8.56 billion, accounting for 25.1% of textile imports during the same period. Imports of textiles other than masks decreased by 6.6% year-on-year (The U.S. has not announced the import value of masks in 2019, and it is impossible to calculate the increase in all textile imports including masks. speed).

　　 Figure 1: The year-on-year growth rate of textile and apparel imports in major developed economies in 2020

　　Note: The 2020 textile and apparel import data released by the United States does not include masks, while the EU and Japan import data include masks.

　　Data source: US Office of Textiles and Clothing, Eurostat, Japanese Customs

　　The epidemic has caused a substantial impact on the employment and income of residents in developed economies. Coupled with the influence of factors such as home isolation and reduced social activities, the sales of non-essential terminal consumer goods such as clothing are not smooth. The retail sales of clothing and apparel in the United States, Europe, and Japan fell to historical lows in April 2020. Although they have gradually recovered since then, the autumn and winter epidemics have once again impacted the retail market, and the annual retail sales still fell sharply. In 2020, the retail sales of clothing and apparel in the United States totaled 197.35 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 26%; the retail sales of textiles and apparel in Japan were approximately $79.3 billion, a decrease of 21.4% year-on-year; the retail sales of textiles, apparel, and footwear in the European Union decreased by 24.4 year-on-year %. The scale of clothing imports has also decreased. In 2020, the clothing imports of the United States, the European Union, and Japan will decrease by 23.5%, 13.5%, and 15% year-on-year respectively.

　　 Figure 2: Monthly growth rate of apparel retail sales in major developed economies

　　Data source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Eurostat, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan

　　Under the overall stable situation of domestic epidemic prevention and control, my country's comprehensive textile industry system has highlighted its competitive advantages, becoming the only economy among major Asian textile and apparel producers to achieve positive growth in exports, and its share in the international market has increased accordingly. China Customs Express data shows that in 2020, my country's exports of textiles and clothing totaled US$291.22 billion, an increase of 9.6% year-on-year. According to relevant statistics from the United States, Europe, and Japan, my country's share in the total textile and apparel imports of the United States, the European Union, and Japan in 2020 will be 33%, 43.9%, and 58.6%, respectively, an increase of 0.2, 13.1, and 3.3 percentage points from 2019. . Among them, my country's mask products occupy an absolute advantage, accounting for 83%, 91.3%, and 89.9% of the imports of masks from the United States, the European Union, and Japan, respectively.

　　 Figure 3: The share of my country's textile and apparel products in the main import markets

　　Data source: US Office of Textiles and Clothing, Eurostat, Japanese Customs

　　 Textile and apparel exports from other developing economies have generally shrunk

　　 In 2020, the export scale of major textile and apparel producing countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia will be reduced to varying degrees. Relevant statistics show that Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia exported 29.71 billion U.S. dollars, 33.55 billion U.S. dollars and 5.86 billion U.S. dollars of textiles and garments to the world in 2020, respectively, and their exports decreased by 11.8%, 9.3% and 17.2% respectively year-on-year. India has exported 21.67 billion U.S. dollars of textiles and apparel in the fiscal year 2020-2021 (data from April 2020 to January 2021), a year-on-year decrease of 19.3%. In terms of product structure, from the available data, the textile exports of the above-mentioned four countries are generally better than clothing, but only Bangladesh’s textile exports have achieved a positive growth of 21.6%. The textile exports of the other three countries all declined to varying degrees, but the decline in clothing exports was more significant than that of textiles. India and Bangladesh's clothing exports fell by 26.4% and 12.7% year-on-year, respectively, which were 13.6 and 34.3 percentage points higher than textiles.

　　Turkey is also among the top ten countries in the world's textile and clothing exports. In 2020, it exported a total of US$27.08 billion in textiles and clothing, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%, of which textile exports decreased by 0.7% year-on-year, and clothing exports decreased by 6.3% year-on-year.

　　 Figure 4: The growth rate of textile and apparel exports in some countries

　　Note: India’s fiscal year is from April to March of the following year. India’s export data in this figure is from April 2020 to January 2021.

　　Data sources: Vietnam Customs, Bangladesh Customs, Turkish Statistics Bureau, Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Indonesian Statistics Bureau