Import value jumped by more than a third while actual wool volumes grew less than 5 percent. That gap is the real entry point to understanding China's wool textile trade right now. According to China Customs data, trade in wool textile raw materials and products reached USD 11.7 billion (about RMB 80.5 billion) in the first eight months of 2026, up 12.9 percent year on year. Behind the headline growth, the structural shift on the import side matters far more than the export side.
Imports: Value Sprinting, Volume Crawling
Wool textile imports totaled USD 3.14 billion from January to August, up 33.67 percent year on year — nearly five times the export growth rate. Breaking it down, imports of wool and early-processed wool reached USD 1.87 billion, up 48.19 percent, while import volume was 213,000 tonnes, up only 4.56 percent. The wide gap between value and volume was almost entirely price-driven: the average import price hit USD 8.77 per kilogram, up 41.73 percent year on year.
This means domestic wool textile enterprises absorbed a classic cost shock in the first half. Raw material prices rose by roughly 40 percent, while downstream garment and fabric pricing power did not keep pace. Margin compression was almost inevitable. For worsted and woollen mills that rely heavily on wool as feedstock, the higher the raw material share of production costs, the sharper the squeeze.
A moderating signal emerged in August: the monthly average wool import price was USD 8.96 per kilogram, down 7.5 percent from the previous month, and other animal fiber import prices also fell 7.5 percent month on month. The rapid price escalation has eased somewhat, but whether this marks a turning point or a temporary correction remains unclear. The pace of transactions in international wool auction markets deserves close tracking.
Exports: Volume Divergence, Price to the Rescue
Exports reached USD 8.56 billion (RMB 58.9 billion) in the first eight months, up 6.82 percent year on year. On the surface, steady growth. Internally, however, a clear volume-price divergence is at work. Woven wool garment exports totaled 11.06 million pieces, down 9.49 percent, while export volumes of other major wool product categories all grew.
What actually supported export value was pricing. Export prices for early-processed and mid-to-downstream wool products fluctuated between minus 5 percent and plus 6 percent year on year, while the average export price of woven wool garments reached USD 48.65 per piece, up 18.23 percent. Higher unit prices offset part of the volume decline, indicating that the export mix is tilting toward higher value-added products.
For buyers, this shift means the pricing center for wool garments is rising and the room for low-price, high-volume orders is narrowing. For factories, whether they can secure clients willing to pay a premium for quality and design directly determines their resilience during a high raw material cost cycle. Competing purely on volume has become visibly difficult in this cycle.
Upstream-Downstream Transmission and Key Variables
Placed in the supply chain context, the logic is clear: rising international wool prices push up import costs, early-processing segments bear the brunt first, and pressure then transmits to fabric and garment stages. Most export products have limited room for price increases, and only some garment categories achieved higher prices. Cost pass-through is not smooth.
Industry analysis generally holds that the overall positive fundamentals of wool textile trade remain intact, but the cost transmission challenge is still the core risk hanging over enterprises. Three variables deserve close monitoring: the direction of international wool prices, the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on RMB-denominated costs, and whether end-market demand can sustain higher product pricing.