The China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) recently announced that the unit price of textile garments exported from China has risen significantly. In 2006, the average unit price of exported textile products rose 10.14 percent. This reflects an obvious change in the economic growth mode of the country's textile industry. China's advantage has long been its ability to offer cheap goods; now the overall competitiveness of its exports has risen.

In 2006, the sales income of the textile industry increased 21.3 percent from 2005, with total profits up 28 percent. Net profit has actually increased faster than gross profit.

China's textile export market no longer depends solely on the quota market. According to 2006 statistics from Customs, the total value of the textile export trade reached 147.09 billion yuan in 2006, up 25.1 percent from 2005. General trade increased 29.3 percent, making up 72 percent of the total. This means that over 70 percent of textile goods are exported to the quota-free market, and dependency on the European and American quota market is falling.

The textile industry has been hit by the increasing cost of materials, RMB revaluation and trade friction. However, it is predicted that the textile industry will continue to grow stably and steadily in 2007, with output increasing by more than 10 percent and the value of production and exports by 20 percent.

By People's Daily Online