Li Ning had its own private TITAS
15/10/2009
The Taiwanese textile industry is hopeful that a proposed agreement on export duties between the country and China will help manufacturers there make a bigger impression on the Chinese apparel market.
Last year, 21% of Taiwan’s total upstream and downstream textile exports, in value terms, went to China, while another 14% went to Hong Kong. The total value that came into the industry from these two export destinations was $2.9 billion, but general secretary of the Taiwan Textile Federation, Justin Huang, has said that his organisation believes it can push that total through the $5 billion barrier in future.
He said during a press lunch at the TITAS 2009 exhibition in Taipei (October 14–16) that, while much of Taiwan’s manufacturing industries had migrated their production to China, where, he claimed, labour costs are ten times cheaper, the technical textile industry is an exception. “We have a specialism in advanced technical textiles that China can’t compete with,” he commented.
As an example, he said China’s main sports apparel and footwear brand, Li Ning, had sent a private delegation to Taipei in advance of the TITAS event. Mr Huang explained that the dates of the show clashed with internal strategic meetings at the Chinese sports brand, so the Taiwan Textile Federation arranged for buyers from the company to have a private preview of the innovations on offer at TITAS 2009.
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