Home textile enterprises’resumption of production has improved,foreign trade exports are under severe pressure

The recent spread of the global pandemic has triggered a financial earthquake and a global economic downturn， which has tightened the foreign trade situation.

From 18 to 22 March 2020， the China Home Textile Association has again carried out the “investigation on the resumption of production and operation of the home textile industry”. A total of 165 valid questionnaires for home textile enterprises and 17 valid questionnaires for home textile industry clusters were received in this questionnaire survey.

The results of this investigation and analysis show that： Home textile enterprises resumption of production has improved； foreign trade exports are under severe pressure.

Home textile enterprises resumption of production has improved.

This survey shows that the overall proportion of industry resuming work is better than the previous period. The average proportion of workers getting back to work in the surveyed enterprises is 87%， of which the number of workers getting back to work in enterprises above designated size is relatively high， especially in large enterprises with annual sales of more than 100 million yuan， the proportion of workers getting back to work is 91%. In the towel and fabric industry clusters interviewed， the proportion of enterprises resuming work reached 100% and 99%， respectively.

Spread of overseas pandemic has a greater impact on export trade

The 111 export-oriented enterprises expect a larger decline in the export value in the first half of the year， and 33.33% of export-oriented enterprises expect the pandemic to reduce exports of home textile enterprises by 30% - 50%. Most of the export-oriented home textile enterprises interviewed said that since March 18， they have continuously received notices of delayed shipments from European and American customers， and some overseas customers have even cancelled their orders. This makes foreign trade-oriented home textile enterprises suddenly have problems such as increased inventory and difficult capital turnover， and affects their production and operations in the next two months. Some export enterprises with Europe and the United States as their main markets will fall into a dilemma of production suspension or reduction.

The domestic home textile market is yet to be restored

Although the domestic pandemic situation is gradu-ally restrained， the recovery of many physical retails still takes time， and online sales have not reached the normal levels of previous years due to logistics. The problem of insufficient market demand is still not completely solved. Domestic sales enterprises believe that the impact of the pandemic on the enterprises revenue and profits in the first half of the year is mainly concentrated on a 20% -30% decrease from the same period last year.

The pandemic has a significant impact on the home textile industry in the first half of the year.

As the domestic pandemic situation is gradually contained， the resumption of production of enterprises is fully promoted， the coordination of the industrial chain operation is improved， and the order situation of home textile enterprises is improving. However， the COVID-19 impact on the international market， compared with the survey results of the previous questionnaire， the expectations of home textile enterprises in this period are generally not optimistic.

At present， although the domestic pandemic prevention and control situation is steadily improving， the global pandemic prevention and control situation is extremely severe， the international market has fallen significantly， insufficient orders， poor sales， and tight capital chains are the prominent problems facing home textile enterprises. The China Home Textile Association listens to the voices of enterprises， carefully sorts out the demands put forward by the enterprises， and puts forward to the relevant government departments measures and suggestions that are conducive to the resumption of work and operation of the enterprises.

Suggestions and measures that are beneficial to the resumption of production of enterprises

First， we will introduce new policies to restore domestic demand and boost consumer confidence； second， further increase support for retail dealers； third， further increase assistance to export enterprises； fourth， increase the support of enterprises to develop the market.