In the first five months of 2026, China's total import and export of wool textile raw materials and products exceeded $6 billion, up 8.16% year-on-year. However, what deserves more attention is the severe divergence between exports and imports—exports grew only 2.29%, while imports surged 26.65%. This indicates that upstream raw material procurement is accelerating at a pace far exceeding terminal product exports.
Emerging Market Semi-finished Demand Drives Export Growth
The $4.35 billion export figure seems moderate, but the structural changes by product and destination are dramatic. Wool tops dominated exports to India and Turkey: 9,086 tons to India, up 77.22%, and 1,165 tons to Turkey, up 54.69%. This surge is no accident—textile capacity expansion in South Asia and the Middle East has shifted semi-finished wool top demand from supplementary to essential.
For domestic primary processing enterprises, this opens a stable growth channel. Indian and Turkish spinning mills are increasingly importing Chinese wool tops as intermediates rather than raw wool, allowing Chinese processors to capture higher value-added premiums while reducing direct exposure to terminal market fluctuations.
Raw Material Imports: Price Up, Volume Flat, Cost Pressure Rising
Compared to steady export growth, import signals are more direct. Wool raw material and product imports hit $1.71 billion, up 26.65%. Wool and primary processed wool imports reached $1.10 billion, up 34.04%, but volume remained flat at 130,000 tons. The price-up, volume-flat pattern shows that rising international wool spot prices are the main driver.
This means domestic processors are absorbing higher raw material costs. While export orders provide some offset, profit margins are squeezed. Notably, RMB-denominated exports fell 1.01% year-on-year, contrasting with the 2.29% USD growth—exchange rate fluctuations are eroding actual returns.
Industry Response to the Divergent Landscape
The core tension in the wool textile industry is between expanding semi-finished demand in emerging markets and rising raw material costs. On one hand, India and Turkey's capacity expansion cycles are not over, supporting continued wool top export growth. On the other, international wool supply, affected by Australian output volatility and logistics costs, is prone to price increases.
For domestic enterprises, two strategic directions emerge: upstream integration through long-term supply agreements or overseas farm partnerships to control costs, and downstream upgrading to increase high-value products like cashmere, which grew 6.97% in exports, demonstrating feasibility.