The latest data on China’s trade in wool and wool products provides a rather gloomy picture of the trade situation for China’s wool textile industry, reflecting the extremely difficult demand situation given the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s exports of wool products (top, yarn, fabric and clothing) accounts for around half of the raw wool that China imports each year. Regrettably, China’s exports of wool products have slumped in the first four months of 2020. The decline has been most intense in exports of wool clothing and wool fabric. China’s exports of woven wool clothing were down by 35% in the January-April period, while exports of wool knitwear dropped by 30%. China’s exports of wool fabric fell by 35% in the January -April period this year, while exports of wool yarn were down by 15%. China’s exports of wool top have done best, only falling by 6% in the first four months.

With the decline in exports of wool products, mills in China have cut back their purchases of raw wool. China’s imports of raw wool slumped by 23% in the first four months of 2020. There has been a large drop in imports from all sources with the exception of South Africa (the lift for South Africa reflects the bounce-back from last year’s ban on imports from South Africa due to Foot and Mouth Disease).

Further details including two charts showing the trends in China’s exports of wool products and imports of raw wool, are provided in the full edition of this week’s Weekly Newsletter. Available to NCWSBA members.