While Asia, particularly China, has enjoyed a dominant position in shoes, apparel and household textiles manufacturing for several years, makers of these items located in developed nations such as the U.S. and Canada have suffered a long period of decline. For example, over 98% of the shoes sold in America each year are imports, and the majority of these imports come from Asia. To consumers in Europe and North America, this growing reliance on Asia as a low-cost producer has meant very low retail prices for goods of reasonable quality.
However, recent increases in the value of the Chinese currency, combined with rapidly rising labor costs, have put Chinese manufacturers in a much less competitive position. Competition from very low-cost nations in Africa as well as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and elsewhere is intense, and a large portion of apparel manufacturing formerly done in China is moving to these areas at a rapid pace. For example, Vietnam’s apparel exports to the U.S. jumped to $7.1 billion in 2012 from $6.6 billion a year earlier. China’s apparel exports to the U.S. were $29.0 billion in 2012, down slightly from 2011’s $29.3 billion.
While China continues to have a robust apparel manufacturing industry, it is moving up the industrial chain by fostering manufacturing that requires greater skills, better technology and more investment in advanced equipment. Such segments that are rapidly evolving in China include InfoTech, automobiles, trains, aerospace, medical equipment and telecommunications gear.
China’s textile and clothing exports soared from $16.89 billion in 1990 to $206.74 billion in 2010, according to the World Trade Organization. For 2011, China’s total was $253.2 billion, nearly a 23% increase. India is a distant second in this category, at $29.4 billion in 2011 (up from $4.71 billion in 1990). Other nations in the top ten for global apparel and textiles exports in 2011 included Turkey ($24.7 billion), Bangladesh ($21.5 billion), the United States ($20.0 billion by WTO estimates), Vietnam ($17.0 billion), the Republic of Korea ($14.2 billion), Pakistan ($13.7 billion) and Indonesia ($12.8 billion). The EU, in broad terms counting 27 nations, enjoyed exports of apparel and textiles totaling $193.0 billion in 2011.
Globally, the World Trade Organization (WTO) reports that apparel and textile exports grew 17% in 2011 (compared to 14.6% in 2010). Textile exports totaled $294 billion and apparel exports totaled $412 billion. For the decade ending in 2010, compound annual growth averaged 5.5% worldwide. Among the fastest growing nations in that period were Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, Turkey and India.
India has the advantage of abundant resources of raw materials. It is one of the largest producers of cotton yarn in the world and there are good resources of fibres such as polyester, silk, viscose, etc. The country is also home to a wide range of cotton fibre and has a rapidly developing synthetic fibre industry.
The Indian textile and apparel market size was estimated to be Rs 2,73,000 crores (USD 58 billion) in 2011 and is projected to grow
at 9% CAGR to Rs 6,64,000 crores (USD 141 billion) by 2021
- Menswear contributes 43% of the Indian market; however, this contribution is expected to drop to 40% by 2021 due to faster growth of womenswear and kidswear
- The domestic home textile market is growing at a CAGR of 8% and is projected to reach Rs 40,800 crores (USD 9 billion) in 2021
- The technical textiles market of India is estimated to be Rs 64,650 crores (USD 14 billion) and is expected to reach Rs 1,60,750 crores (USD 34 billion) by 2021, at a CAGR of 10%
- Employment in the Indian textile and apparel sector stands at 45 million and with an additional employment of 60 million in allied sector, total employment figure stands at 105 million.