China : Textile industry booms despite trade disputes

Despite increasing international trade disputes and the appreciation China's currency in 2005, the country's textile industry recorded healthy increases, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles said Wednesday.

According to the chamber's estimate, sales revenues, profits and exports all increased 20 percent year on year. Sales revenue totaled 2 trillion yuan (250 billion U.S. dollars), profits were 66 billion yuan, while exports reached 116 billion U.S. dollars in2005.

China's textile export in 2004 totaled 97.3 billion US dollars, according to figures from Chinese customs.

The chamber attributed the textile output and export growth mainly to increased investment in fixed assets and technological innovation that have enhanced the competitiveness of Chinese companies.

Official statistics show in the first ten months of 2005, sales revenue and sales value and industrial added-value of large-sized Chinese textile enterprises grew 26.33, 26.28 and 24.95 percent year on year respectively. This is a growth rate that was higher than the same period of 2004.

Due to oil price hikes, profits in China's chemical fiber sector of the textile industry dropped about 30 percent. If this decline were not included in the industry's calculations the chamber believes profit growth registered 30 percent in most other sectors.

Thanks to the elimination of global textile quota, China's textile exports to the United States and European Union jumped 62.7 percent in the first ten months of 2005, and accounted for 34.09 percent of all of China's textile exports. The ratio in 2004 stood at 25.72 percent.

Xinhua