Apparel / Textiles & Accessories

"After the Spring Festival holiday, the popularity is particularly strong and the business is booming!" Mr. Qian, a cloth dealer, has been working in the textile industry for many years. Seeing the long-lost "popularity" of China Light Textile City, he also has expectations for this year's business and hopes to seize the "hot start" to do a lot. Although the COVID-19 caused many foreign trade businesses to press the "pause button", in the domestic market, some businesses chose "de stocking" before the year to make the light textile market more prosperous after the year, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Domestic sales companies "de-stock" before the new year, and the business is "fierce" after the new year

As the largest fabric market in Asia, China Light Textile City operates more than 50000 kinds of fabrics, and textiles are exported to 192 countries and regions. After the Spring Festival holiday, the market was busy.

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, Mr. Qian, an old textile worker, is particularly sensitive to the market. He mentioned that after the opening of the market in the Spring Festival, prices have risen in all aspects of procurement, production and sales. Mr. Qian told reporters that due to the epidemic at the end of last year, many companies began to take holidays on New Year's Day holiday. The early holiday means that the factory will reduce production or shut down, and the inventory of the sales department of the textile city will also decrease. There are also many fabric manufacturers who reported that some of them chose to reduce the price of "destocking" before the year in order to pay workers at the end of the year.

After the opening of the Spring Festival, some companies engaged in domestic sales urgently need to replenish inventory. They have prepared goods in succession, which is also rapidly transmitted to the upstream industry, causing a general price increase in such as grey fabric processing plants and printing processing plants. "Compared with last year, the increase can reach 5 to 10 percentage points," Mr. Qian told reporters.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the general price increase of grey cloth, printing and other processing plants may be related to the incomplete arrival of workers. For example, the original 10 sets of equipment in the factory are fully opened, but now only 60% of the production capacity can be achieved because some workers are not fully recruited. "Compared with the past, when processing orders in the same day, the factory can start work that night or the next day; now, it will not be put into production until at least a week later," Mr. Qian said.

The price increase of upstream processing enterprises also affects the price change of finished fabrics to a certain extent. Mr. Qian's words revealed his helplessness: "The situation has changed after the holiday. When the original customers come to order, we all communicate with them in advance. We can only choose to raise the price slowly or reduce our profit margin. But for the orders that have been placed before the year, we can only sacrifice the original profits. After all, we have to rely on the spirit of the contract to do business."

Business is booming. Some fabrics can't be delivered

Behind the "hot" opening of the Spring Festival, there are also cloth merchants who maintain a "calm". The reporter learned from the interview that, at present, the downstream is in the process of resuming work after the holiday, and the market is still mainly to complete orders before the Spring Festival. After the Lantern Festival, downstream textile enterprises will resume work in an all-round way, and the market will gradually enter a critical stage of verifying demand.

A fabric enterprise located in the light textile market has a busy scene in the loading factory. Large trucks full of warm fabrics are waiting in line for delivery. Yang Jie, the person in charge of the enterprise, told the reporter that the loading driver may have to run several times a day at the hottest time in the past, and even overnight loading has become the norm. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The company's main products are sports and thermal fabrics, which are also the main raw materials of many leisure sports clothing and home textile products on the market at present. "Compared with the relatively cold business situation last year, I didn't expect to receive orders from Sima recently." Yang Jie happily told the reporter, "These clothing enterprises will place orders to us, and we will order according to the requirements of the other party." He said that clothing enterprises have special requirements for fabric color and other aspects, and buyers are particularly particular about fabric color.

Yang Jie said that recently, I often heard friends in the sales department complain that "they can't get the goods". Like a kind of fabric called European cotton wool, the price has been rising since the beginning of the new year. "This kind of fabric is still popular in the market, causing a wave of craze." The sales volume of this kind of fabric was good before the year, and the market demand surged after the year, so the price of the merchants with goods on hand will naturally rise. In addition, many processing plants only started after the Lantern Festival, and many workers have not arrived yet, so this kind of fabric has become the "sweet cake" that many people scramble to purchase.

He also told reporters that at present, there is a "fast return" domestic order model that is particularly popular, which may also make upstream processing enterprises feel more pressure. "Many merchants in the sales department receive orders in this mode." Merchants like Tiktok or fast fashion brands will require the entire chain to run very quickly. For example, 50 styles of clothes are sold on Tiktok, and the most popular styles in the live broadcast room are selected for mass production. Pre sales are carried out for several days in a row, but they are generally required to be delivered within a week. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

"Clothing fabrics should be produced quickly, and the normal order can take more than 10 days at most. In the 'quick return' mode, the fabric can take two or three days at most." Yang Jie explained that from clothing production to logistics storage, to the live selling room, and finally to complete the platform pre-sale, each link is produced within the specified time. "This also prompted many businesses to store goods in the store department, and business is particularly hot."