Industry sources claim that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) may soon launch a development plan for the textile industry. The plan is expected to be unveiled during the first half of this year - the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). The measures may include focus on high-end production, textiles for automobile use, implementation of recycling system for waste textile and developing Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as a major textile base by 2020 to provide easy access to the western countries.
Despite all reports and studies pointing out how falling currency, rising raw material and labour costs in China are impacting the country’s apparel market, according to the forecast made by the Euromonitor, the country will exceed the United States to become the world’s largest apparel market by 2019.
The report suggests that annual apparel sales in China will reach $333,312 million in 2019, an increase of 25 per cent from $267,246 million in 2014. While in comparison, apparel sales in the United States are estimated to reach $267,360 million in 2019, which is only 3 per cent higher than $260,050 million in 2014.
The study points out that China seems to be an even more competitive apparel market than the United States because no apparel brand was able to achieve a market share more than 1 per cent in 2014 in China, whereas in the United States, market shares of several leading apparel brands exceeded 2 per cent. Moreover, domestic brands overall outperform international brands in the Chinese apparel market.
www.euromonitor.com
