Analysis Of China's Home Textile Export From January To June 2023

In the first half of this year, despite the adverse factors of weakening external demand and order shifts, China's home textile exports maintained positive growth, slightly outperforming the overall export situation of the textile and apparel industry. Export growth primarily relied on emerging markets and new trade methods such as cross-border e-commerce and border trade, while the performance in traditional markets and trade methods remained subdued.

In the first half of the year, China's home textile exports accumulated to $15.86 billion, a year-on-year growth of 1.8%, with the cumulative growth rate dropping 2.4 percentage points compared to the previous month. In June alone, home textile exports amounted to $2.75 billion, marking an 8.3% decrease compared to the same period last year, and extending the decline from the 5.9% decrease seen in the previous month. Looking at monthly performance, export growth in the first half of the year showed significant fluctuations: exports in January and February both declined by over 10%, while March and April rapidly rebounded to peak growth rates of 26% and 27.6%. Starting from May, the growth rate began to decline rapidly again.

Among specific products, the major categories with fast export growth include kitchenware, tablecloths, and carpets. Among them, kitchenware exports were valued at $1.53 billion, showing a year-on-year growth of 15.7%; tablecloth exports reached $380 million, with a year-on-year growth of 10.6%; carpet exports amounted to $2.04 billion, indicating an 8.6% year-on-year growth. Bedding exports totaled $6.81 billion, with a marginal year-on-year increase of 0.7%; blanket and towel exports were $1.62 billion and $1.16 billion respectively, both transitioning from positive to negative export growth, with declines of 3.1% and 3.5% respectively. Curtain and other decorative product exports continued their downward trend, with declines ranging from 2% to 4%.

China's top four home textile export markets in the first half of the year were the United States, ASEAN, the European Union, and Japan. Exports to the United States were valued at $4.68 billion, showing a year-on-year decline of 9%, with the cumulative decline expanding by 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous month. Exports to ASEAN reached $2.15 billion, reflecting year-on-year growth of 22.5%, but the cumulative growth rate slowed down by 10.5 percentage points compared to the previous month. Exports to the European Union totaled $1.88 billion, marking a year-on-year decline of 9.4%, with the decline narrowing by 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous month. Exports to Japan were $1.22 billion, indicating a year-on-year decline of 9.3%, with the decline expanding by 1.8 percentage points compared to the previous month.

In the first half of the year, exports to countries along the "Belt and Road" amounted to $4.64 billion, showing a year-on-year growth of 20.7%. Exports to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the Middle East reached $760 million, marking an 8.5% growth; exports to the five Central Asian countries totaled $380 million, with a significant increase of 50.4%; exports to Africa amounted to $730 million, showing a substantial growth of 19.3%; exports to Latin America reached $850 million, growing by 10.2%; exports to Australia amounted to $640 million, marking a growth of 5.7%.