According to General Administration of Customs China (GACC), the country has experienced a marginal growth of 1.60 per cent on yearly basis in its apparel import value in 2020.
China imported apparels worth US $ 8.26 billion in 2020 as against US $ 8.13 billion in 2019.
As per Apparel Resources’ analysis, the growth was witnessed due to rise in woven clothing imports, while the values of knitted garment import declined.
Of total imports, woven clothing contributed US $ 4.75 billion with a Y-o-Y growth of 6 per cent, while knitted clothing segment remained weaker by 3.80 per cent in 2020 to US $ 3.51 billion.
In December ’20 alone, the import valued US $ 942.30 million, marking 19.50 per cent Y-o-Y growth.
As far as the growth in December is concerned, the Chinese New Year in February 2021 and holidays can be a reason because of which brands and importers have stocked up inventories in advance.
The same was echoed by Vincent Djen, Director, Cheng Kung Garments, and a Fashion Innovator of China as he told us, “The modest increase in imports could be due to the planned imports by apparel brands in order to raise their inventory levels seeing positive activities on online commerce and also luxury goods demand. I think people will still spend money on clothes in 2021 but differently and wisely as compared to previous years and spend more on e-commerce platforms.”
On the other hand, textile imports of the country sunk significantly in 2020 by 10.20 per cent and valued US $ 13.77 billion.
