China's garment industry is advancing towards the high end of the industry chain

Wang Tiankai, chairman of the China Textile Industry Federation, said on the 26th that due to factors such as the increase in labor and raw materials, some fashion manufacturing factories are shifting from China to Southeast Asia and Western Europe. This is a necessary trend in the adjustment of the world apparel industry structure. It will not have a direct impact on China's garment manufacturing industry. China will also pay more attention to building its own brand and to the upstream of the industrial value chain.

In response to the fact that the production line for Italian and other clothing brands proposed by foreign media has recently moved from China to Turkey, Wang Tiankai, president of the China National Textile and Apparel Industry Federation, made the above response at the 20th China Apparel and Accessories Expo.

He believes that Italy and other European fashion brands have moved to neighboring countries. Apart from direct factors such as closer culture and smoother communication, it is also an inevitable trend in the adjustment of the world apparel industry structure.

With the weakness of the international market, the global apparel processing trade has become increasingly fiercely competitive. Southeast Asia and some other countries have gradually become the processing center of the world's garments relying on lower raw materials and labor costs.

“In Dongguan alone, manpower costs rose by 30% and raw materials exceeded 20%.” Liu Jinxi, deputy director of the SME Bureau of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, said, “These factors have created pressure on export-oriented apparel OEM companies.”

China Textile Industry Federation data show that, excluding price factors, from January to December 2011, China's textile and apparel exports increased by only 0.5% year-on-year, of which apparel exports fell 0.2% year-on-year.

"This is an inevitable trend in the adjustment of the industrial structure. It will become even more obvious in the coming years," said Wang Tiankai, president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council. However, China is still a world leader in garment processing and manufacturing, and a significant shift in production lines will not occur.

“At the same time, some of our garment companies have gradually moved their factories to neighboring countries.” Chen Dapeng, executive vice president of the China Garment Association, believes that this phenomenon also indicates that the Chinese garment industry is advancing toward the high end of the industry chain. At present, China's garment industry has become the most complete industrial chain system in the world, and its core competitiveness is shifting from labor cost advantage to functional advantage, efficiency advantage, and cost-performance advantage.

"There is no way to do OEM forever, and the final direction of development is to be an independent brand." Chen Dapeng said that the current development trend of China's own brands and apparel design is very good, and there are more and more companies in the neighboring countries to paste Chinese clothing brands. brand.

“This year CHIC has more than 600 local clothing brands in China, occupying more than 70,000 square meters of exhibition area. In addition, more than a thousand clothing brands and experts from 21 countries and regions have participated in the exchange.” Chen Dapeng said that in the future, China's garment industry will seize the two commanding heights of brand building and design and R&D to form a mature and complete technical capability and industrial system.