The current status of China’s textile industry may be summed up in one word: growth. In turn, the future prospects forChina’s textile industry may be summed up in two words: more growth.However, even with current and projected growth in China’s textile industry, structural issues, new emerging competitors andslowing growth in the rate of global consumption of textiles in the coming years will temper industry expansion. At the sametime, though China’s textile industry exhibited strong growth in recent years, has been plagued by a series of problems rangingfrom (at times) chronic overcapacity, inefficiencies brought about by central government planning and difficulties in securingconsistent supplies of raw materials. These problems still affect the industry today.In many ways, the emergence of China as a dominant global player in textiles and apparel up until now has been the directresult of China’s success in the cut and sew trade, not as a result of its textile industry. It is the growth in China’s cut and sewbusiness that has in large part pulled China’s textile industry along.In order to fuel China’s rapidly expanding global reach in apparel, the country’s apparel industry imports whatever it needsthat it cannot find produced domestically. Thus, China remains a major importer of textile yarns and fabrics; in particular,China still imports a significant amount of its basic textiles from other Asian suppliers. Yet this import phenomenon will notlast for much longer as the country will increasingly rely on domestic sources for its textile supply – a supply that is increasinglysupported by overseas investment.
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