According to China Customs Statistics (CCS), China’s textile and apparel exports fell 15.13 per cent on Y-o-Y basis to clock US $ 15.43 billion revenue in March 2020.

Of all, textile yarns and fabrics saw fall of 6.32 per cent and exports of the same valued at US $ 8.92 billion, while the export of apparel and accessories plunged by 24.83 per cent to earn US $ 6.51 billion revenue.

It’s worth recalling that apparel exports from China fell 20.3 per cent to clock US $ 14.27 billion of revenues in the first 2 months of 2020 and the continued dip in March indicates the country doesn’t have significant export orders to cater to.

In order to stop the pandemic, majority of apparel markets have enforced lockdown and put a hold on retail operations which will result in a drastic fall in Chinese export even in April.

The orders which Chinese factories worked once they resumed operation in March were pre-holiday orders. However, majority of these orders couldn’t be shipped due to overseas outspread of COVID-19 and resulted in overall decline.

According to feedback coming from textile manufacturers located in Jiangsu, Henan and other manufacturing clusters, they were not receiving new export orders and domestic orders were sluggish too till mid-April.

“Even price reduction in the commodity that we produce is not helping us,” said a manufacturer based in Jiangsu.

This dismal performance of apparel and textile factories due to lack of orders is now forcing factories’ owners to extend their holidays to save operational and overhead costs in order to survive.

“May Day holidays are already approaching but many factories have decided to extend holidays now instead of waiting for May Day,” said a factory representative.