Chinese textilers lose advantage with foreign buyers

Changsha (CNS) -- We must attach great importance to a trend in the Chinese textile industry where companies are losing potential orders from their regular foreign buyers, said Wang Shouwen, secretary for the Foreign Trade Division of Chinese Ministry of Commerce on May 19.

Records for the first quarter of 2012 show China's textile exports to Japan up by seven percent year-on-year, but Japan's textile imports from Vietnam and Cambodia have increased by more than 40 percent than the same period in 2011.

China's textile industry is losing the traditional advantage it held in exporting to Japan, the Europe and US.

"Our labor costs are detrimental to textile companies focusing on foreign clients," said Hua Shan, an expert from China Textile Planning Institute. She emphasized that salaries and benefits account for fifty to fifty-five percent of the processing cost for clothing companies. 　

Wang added, some foreign companies have begun to adopt a 'China plus one' mode for its production orders, which means they take China as just one of many options rather the only one.