According to the General Administration of Customs, China’s textile and apparel exports in the first seven months amounted to US$170.74 billion, reflecting a slight year-on-year increase of 0.6%. The export value hit a high level for the same period in recent years. Among them, textile exports totaled US$82.12 billion, rising by 1.6% year-on-year, while apparel exports reached US$88.62 billion, decreasing by 0.3% year-on-year.

In CNY-denominated terms, textile and garment exports totaled 1.23 trillion yuan, marking a 1.8% year-on-year increase. Specifically, textile exports were 590.07 billion yuan and apparel exports amounted to 636.79 billion yuan, increasing by 2.7% and 0.9% year-on-year, respectively.

Figure: Monthly Statistics of China’s Textiles and Apparel Exports from January to July, 2025

Despite this year’s challenging and uncertain external environment, China’s textile foreign trade enterprises are taking active steps. They are proactively adapting to external changes, leveraging the advantages of the entire industrial chain and globalization efforts, and continuing to diversify their trade partners. Their risk resistance is also improving. By the third quarter, China’s textile and apparel exports generally improved compared to the start of the second quarter. In July, China’s textile and apparel exports totaled US$26.77 billion, a slight decrease of 0.1% year-on-year. Of this, textile exports reached US$11.6 billion, up 0.6% year-on-year, while apparel exports amounted to US$15.16 billion, down 0.5% from the previous year.

In the first half of this year, textile intermediates have become the main driver of growth. According to China Customs data, during this period, China’s textiles and apparel were exported to more than 150 countries and regions worldwide, achieving growth. Not only did this continue the export of high-quality Chinese textiles and clothing to the international market, but it also helped maintain stability and resilience in the global textile industry supply chain. Among the main export products, the export of textile intermediates showed steady growth, reaching US$42.73 billion, seeing a 2.7% increase year-on-year. For downstream end-products, the export scale of textile products remained stable, with an export value of US$28.53 billion, up 0.2% year-on-year. However, apparel and accessories exports faced challenges due to weakening external demand and the impact of U.S. tariff policies, which inhibited their growth, resulting in an export value of US$73.46 billion, declining by 0.2% year-on-year.

Given the increasingly complex and evolving international environment, textile foreign trade enterprises should continuously monitor changes in the global economic and trade landscape. They should enhance risk warning and response capabilities and adaptively optimize their global market strategies. At the same time, they need to strengthen core competitiveness further and develop new growth areas by seizing opportunities from domestic consumption upgrades and expanding into diversified overseas markets.

Source: CHINA TEXTILE LEADER Express