Attention: Brief Analysis Of Economic Operation Data Of Knitting Industry In The First Quarter Of 2025

Since 2025, the industry production and operation has generally continued the development trend of the previous year. Under the influence of factors such as the continuous release of the policy effect of promoting domestic sales and foreign trade competing for exports, the first quarter started smoothly. However, under the impact of the US tariff policy, the global economic and trade pattern has entered a period of deep adjustment, the momentum of world economic growth has further weakened, and the international supply chain pattern is facing systematic restructuring, which has a great impact on the development of foreign trade in China's textile industry.

　　 01 Continued growth trend of revenue

Since 2025, with the implementation of a series of national policies to boost the economy and promote consumption, and the effective growth of consumption during the Spring Festival, the domestic market has been boosted. The revenue operation and industrial scale of the knitting industry continue the good development trend in 2024. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to March 2025, the operating income of enterprises above designated size in the knitting industry increased by 4.17% year on year, continuing the growth trend of 2024, and the growth rate increased by 1.19 percentage points compared with the whole year of 2024.

From the perspective of the two categories of knitting products, from January to March 2025, the growth rate of business income of enterprises above designated size of knitted fabrics increased by 2.55% year on year, basically continuing the level of 2024; The growth rate of business income of enterprises above designated size of knitted apparel rose 5.08% year on year, 1.67 percentage points higher than that of 2024.

From January to March 2025, China's clothing production increased by 1.77% year on year, 2.45 percentage points lower than that in 2024. Among them, the output of knitted clothing increased by 0.83% year on year, a decrease of 6.55 percentage points compared with the whole year of 2024, and the proportion of the output of knitted clothing remained at about 69%.

　　 02 Differentiation of benefits on a year-on-year basis

Since the beginning of 2025, the total profit of the industry has continued to grow on the basis of the previous year, but the growth rate has slowed down, and the benefit of knitted clothing has declined significantly year on year, forming a strong contrast with the significant growth of knitted fabric enterprises. From January to March, the total profit of enterprises above designated size increased by 4.83% year on year, of which the total profit of knitted fabric enterprises increased by 32.9% year on year, and the total profit of knitted apparel enterprises decreased by 12.56% year on year.

From January to March, the profit margin of enterprises above designated size in the knitting industry was 2.45%, a slight increase of 0.02 percentage points over the same period of the previous year. Among them, the profit margin of enterprises above designated size for knitted fabrics was 3.35%, up 0.76 percentage points year on year; The profit margin of enterprises above designated size for knitted clothing was 1.95%, down 0.39 percentage points year on year.

　　 03 Export performance better than expected

According to the statistics of China Customs, from January to March 2025, China's export of knitted products reached 22.402 billion US dollars, up 1.17% year on year. Among them, the export of knitted fabrics was 5.386 billion US dollars, up 12.3% year on year; The export of knitted clothing and accessories reached US $17.016 billion, down 1.9% year on year.

Affected by the expectation of tariff competition for exports, enterprises generally concentrated on competing for exports to the US market at the end of last year and the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter of this year, China exported US $4.093 billion of knitted products to the US market, a year-on-year increase of 13.02% and a growth contribution rate of 180%.

In other major markets, the EU and Japan increased slightly, while the ASEAN market fell back. From January to March, China's exports of knitting products to the EU reached 2.65 billion US dollars, up 1.57% year on year; Exports to Japan reached US $1.61 billion, up 6.14% year on year; Exports to ten ASEAN countries reached 4.046 billion US dollars, down 4.15% year on year.

From the perspective of category breakdown, the export volume of most knitted apparel products declined from January to March. Influenced by the high base last year, T-shirts, underwear, home clothes (excluding bras), sportswear and other products declined significantly.

From the local customs data, from January to March, the export of knitting products in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai and other key eastern coastal areas achieved positive growth, with the export volume increasing 13.52%, 8.47%, 7% and 9.29% year on year respectively. Guangdong and Fujian decreased by 7.48% and 20.53% respectively year on year.

　　 04 Domestic sales continued to recover

In the first quarter of 2025, China's economy continued to recover, with a year-on-year growth of 5.4% in GDP and a good start in economic development. Driven by various policies to boost consumption, consumer demand has gradually recovered and the consumer market has continued to expand.

From January to March 2025, China's total retail sales of consumer goods will be 12.47 trillion yuan, up 4.6% year on year. Among them, the retail sales of clothing, shoes and hats, knitwear and textiles above the designated size were 386.9 billion yuan, up 3.4% year on year. From January to March, the online retail sales of physical goods decreased by 0.1% year on year. With the warmer weather and the increasing popularity of short distance travel, some high prosperity subdivisions such as outdoor tracks are expected to continue to benefit from it, ushering in a broader development space.

　　 05 Development prediction and prospect

At present, China's textile industry has generally achieved a stable start, with better than expected export performance and moderate growth in domestic sales, laying a good foundation for the whole year. The United States is an important export market for China's knitted products, especially knitted apparel, which has long been in the first place in the export market. In recent years, the dependence of China's knitted apparel exports on the U.S. market has been more than 23%, and the U.S. market accounted for 1/4 at the highest level. Among them, nearly 1/3 of knitted apparel products rely on the US market by more than 36%.

In this context, the US tariff policy may be a key variable affecting the development of the industry. Although the release of the joint statement of the China US Geneva Economic and Trade Talks has brought benefits to the industry's foreign trade enterprises and can effectively alleviate the plight of export enterprises, there are still large uncertainties and risks in the US tariff policy. Once the United States implements unconventional import tariffs, China's knitted apparel exports will suffer a serious impact, and the production and operation of enterprises will also be greatly affected. It can be seen that in the first half of this year or even longer, the real-time export of China's knitted apparel to the United States will fluctuate.

Despite the severe international environmental challenges, the fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth have not changed. The super large domestic demand market is a solid backing for the development of the industry. The positive fiscal policy has been increased to promote the economic recovery. At the same time, with the continuous increase of subsidies for the "two new" policy, the continuous promotion of the "foreign trade products in China" activity, the implementation of measures related to the integration of domestic and foreign trade, and the precise launch of consumer bonds to activate market potential, the digital transformation of industries to promote the innovative supply of products and services A series of measures, such as the rural revitalization strategy driving the expansion and quality improvement of the rural consumer market, are expected to further stimulate the vitality of the domestic market and hedge the adverse effects of foreign trade. At the same time, textile foreign trade enterprises also need to pay close attention to the international market dynamics, strengthen risk research and management, flexibly adjust the diversified market layout, and comprehensively improve the ability to resist risks.

(Source: China Knitting Industry Association)