China's home-textiles export dropped remarkably by 18.1 per cent to $3.65 billion in this calendar year, says China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel. The reason: weak demand and high year-on-year basis compared to the over 20-per cent growth in same period of last year.

Export to the United States, Europe and Japan all saw double-digit decline. In January-February, China's export to the above-mentioned three markets presented a downward trend. The export stood at $1.02 billion, $670 million and $330 million, down 14.9 per cent, 10.9 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively from a year earlier.

China's export of home-textiles to ASEAN markets and Latin America dropped significantly by 30.6 per cent and 40.3 per cent in the same period. While Guangdong Province remained the big player, inland provinces/municipalities have poor performance. The top five exporters are Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai and Guangdong, but the exports from the first four declined, in which, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai saw significant decline between 13 per cent and 22 per cent, while Shandong saw 4.8-per cent drop. Guangdong Province alone maintained steady growth despite unfavorable situation, but the growing pace slowed down to 9.4 per cent.

Exports from many inland provinces/municipalities such as Hebei, Anhui, Chongqing and Xinjiang saw over 20-per cent decline, Yunnan, Xichuan and Gansu even saw over 50-per cent decline.