In the first four months of 2026, China's textile industry presented a seemingly rosy yet subtly divergent performance. All six core indicators—industrial value-added, fixed asset investment, retail sales, revenue, profits, and exports—recorded growth, but the structural differences in growth rates reveal a sector transitioning from an export-driven, extensive model to a domestic-demand-anchored, profit-oriented phase of refined development.
Data Panorama: Domestic Demand Outperforms External, Profits Outpace Revenue
According to publicly available data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to April 2026, the textile industry's industrial value-added grew by approximately 4.5% year-on-year, nearly one percentage point higher than the same period last year. Fixed asset investment increased by over 8%, indicating sustained enterprise willingness to invest in capacity upgrades and automation. Retail sales of clothing, footwear, hats, and textiles rose by about 5.2%, significantly outpacing the overall growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods.
More notably, profit dynamics shifted. Industry data shows that revenue of above-scale textile enterprises grew by about 3.8% year-on-year, while total profits surged by 7.5%. Profit growth nearly doubled revenue growth, implying improved per-unit profitability—achieved not by selling more, but by selling at higher margins, better cost control, or a shift toward higher value-added product mixes.
On the export front, customs data indicates that cumulative textile and apparel exports from January to April grew by about 2.1% year-on-year, markedly slower than domestic retail growth. Among them, exports of textiles (yarns, fabrics, etc.) grew by about 1.5%, while apparel and accessories exports grew by about 2.8%. These figures confirm a trend: external demand, though still growing, is losing momentum, while the domestic market is becoming the core pillar supporting industry growth.
Structural Divergence: Chemical Fibers Under Pressure, End-Use Markets Recover
By category, upstream chemical fibers faced the most pressure. Due to international oil price fluctuations and concentrated new capacity releases, chemical fiber output grew by about 6% year-on-year, but price indices fell by nearly 3%, severely squeezing industry margins. Some small and medium chemical fiber enterprises reported operating rates below 70%, with inventory cycles extending beyond 45 days.
Midstream fabric sectors performed relatively steadily. Industrial value-added of above-scale weaving enterprises grew by about 4%, but order structures shifted significantly: domestic order share rose from 62% to 67% year-on-year, while foreign orders contracted accordingly. Monitoring data from the two major fabric clusters, Shaoxing Keqiao and Suzhou Shengze, showed average loom operating rates around 82%, but inquiries for differentiated and functional fabrics in Keqiao increased by 12% year-on-year, while turnover of standard varieties slowed notably.
The downstream apparel sector showed the clearest recovery signals. Output of above-scale apparel enterprises grew by about 3.5% year-on-year, but more critically, online retail sales of wearing apparel surged by 7.1%, far outpacing offline channels. New channels like live-streaming e-commerce and community group buying continued to amplify apparel consumption, particularly in sportswear and national-chic design categories.
Industrial Cluster Responses: Accelerated Investment, Labor Cost Pressure
The high growth in fixed asset investment was not evenly distributed. Regionally, investment in central and western textile industrial parks grew significantly faster than in eastern traditional clusters. For example, Xinjiang's cotton spinning capacity continued expanding, with spindle count increasing by about 8% year-on-year, but due to high logistics costs, products remained mostly low-count yarns with limited profit contribution. In contrast, eastern investment focused more on technical transformation and digital upgrades. In Zhejiang's Lanxi denim cluster, smart loom purchases increased by 25% in the first four months.
Labor issues remain a pain point. Despite industrial value-added growth, the number of industry employees fell by about 1.5% year-on-year, indicating accelerated automation replacing labor. Some enterprises reported that recruitment difficulties for skilled workers like loom operators and dyeing technicians have not eased despite economic recovery, with wage costs rising about 8% year-on-year, further pushing companies toward less-labor-intensive operations.