The price of cotton rides a roller coaster to push up the cost of Sichuan garment exports by 40%

The reporter learned from Chengdu Customs that from January to July this year, Sichuan exported 7.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of garments, which was a sharp drop of 42% from the same period last year. Analysts from the Customs said that the main reason for the sharp decline in exports was that the rising domestic cotton prices pushed up corporate costs. At the same time, the acceleration of the pace of renminbi appreciation also led to a further reduction in corporate profitability.

Phenomenon: Apparel exports fell 40% year-on-year According to statistics, the main method of exporting garments in Sichuan – general trade exports in the January-July period of this year was US$580 million, a sharp drop of 41.3%. However, the export of other trade methods based on tourism and shopping decreased by 46.5%.

Among them, private enterprises as the main force of clothing exports have the greatest impact on export value. It is understood that from January to July, Sichuan private enterprises exported garments worth 510 million U.S. dollars, a sharp drop of 50.6%, accounting for 72.1% of the total value of exports.

The responsible person of Chengdu Customs pointed out that since November 2010, the export trend of Sichuan's garments has turned up and down. At the beginning of the year, it has also declined for four consecutive months, once falling to a new low since June 2009, and has been at the bottom since then. Until July, the export scale began to rebound.

Reason: The rising cost of production Why Sichuan's garment exports have fallen sharply? The aforementioned person in charge told the reporter that the continuous increase in production costs is the main factor. In the past year, cotton prices have experienced a sharp rise and fall.

“The recent high prices of domestic cotton, the phenomenon of high raw material purchases and product ex-factory prices of enterprises are high and low, and the production cost has increased significantly. In terms of labor costs, most SMEs’ ​​wages have generally risen by 10%-30%. Between the textile and apparel industries, the increase was particularly noticeable. In addition, the phenomenon of 'employment shortage' was also spreading to the central and western regions, and many enterprises had difficulties in recruiting workers with idle capacity."

In addition, the person in charge said that “the acceleration of the pace of renminbi appreciation has further squeezed corporate profit margins, and many companies have not dared to accept long-term orders and large orders. The enthusiasm of enterprises for export has been greatly reduced, and the price advantage of our export enterprises is rapidly declining.” (Wuxi Metropolitan News reporter Zhao Yaru Shi Lifang)