The Chinese authorities’ attitude towards the continued implementation of ECFA has changed, which has aroused great concern among the textile fiber industry. According to statistics from the Textile Industry Association, cloth and polyester fiber yarn are currently the bulk textile products exported to China. It is estimated that if the policy is tightened, small and medium-sized spinning mills will be more affected.

 

The proportion of bulk and standardized products exported to mainland China by major listed cabinet spinning and fiber mills such as Far East New and Lili has been reduced; long and short fiber fabric mills have not exported their products to China in the first place. As for knitted and functional fabrics, which account for about 30% of Ruhong's revenue, since the Sino-US trade war, the proportion of exports to mainland China has been declining year by year, and is currently almost zero. Therefore, even if ECFA is suspended, the impact will be limited.

 

The industry further stated that garment foundries such as Ruhong, Juyang, and Guanglong are based in Southeast Asia, and their main customers are mostly European, American and Japanese markets, so there is no problem of ECFA being affected by exports to the mainland.

 

Statistics from the Textile Industry Association show that textiles exported to China in 2022 accounted for 14.2% of total export sales that year, reaching US$1.26 billion. Among them, textiles in the ECFA list amounted to about 1.03 billion yuan, mainly knitted fabrics and polyester fiber yarns. If ECFA is stopped, it will have a greater impact on the manufacturers of these textiles.

 

Far East New pointed out that the group currently still has a small amount of yarn, cloth and other textile products, which are exported to China through ECFA list items. However, these items account for less than 1% of the overall revenue. In recent years, the group has actively set up factories in overseas markets, and China also has production lines, so there is no problem in transferring the same ECFA products to mainland China.

 

Lili, whose main business is polyester processed yarn and polyester raw yarn, pointed out that in recent years, the group's textiles have been mainly special, composite, functional, and environmentally friendly recycling, and the proportion of bulk standardized products has been declining year by year, and now almost No production. As for textiles such as fibers and filaments, exports are mainly to customers in markets such as Japan and North America.

 

Deli, a staple fiber fabric factory, said that it originally had a factory in Hangzhou, but now it has set up a new production line in Nantong, and Chinese customers can be directly supplied by local production.

 

The Textile Association stated that it is investigating the possible impact on the domestic textile fiber industry if ECFA is suspended, and will provide guidance to small and medium-sized textile fiber mills exporting to China, companies that produce standardized textiles, etc., or to diversify the market or develop new customers.