Innovation ‘key’ to boosting Chinese textile trade
15/03/2013
Sun Huaibin, deputy general secretary of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, said the Chinese garment industry experienced a tough year in 2012, which he attributed to weak international demand, the price gap between domestic and foreign cotton and rising costs.
"I have high hopes for China's textile industry, and its fortunes will gradually improve as the country's economic emphasis continues to shift from export to domestic consumption," he told the China Daily.
Zhang Xiaoji, director-general of foreign economic relations at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said one crucial advantage China has over its Asian rivals is its highly developed industrial chain as well as the investment made in the latest production technologies. "We are getting closer to US and European levels," he said.
Meanwhile, the government has announced it will issue extra cotton import quotas to textile mills by April.
State reserves are at a record high of 10 million tonnes, or more than 60% of global stocks, and the stockpiling effort pushed domestic prices 50% above world prices and drove imports to a record 5.13 million tonnes last year.
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