The latest data available from China on its exports of wool products for November 2017 is rather mixed. After the strong rise in exports of wool woven clothing from November 2016 to July 2017, exports have declined for each month over the past four months. There was a 28% drop in November, with declines in exports to all of the major destinations, with the exception of South Korea. Even so, exports of wool woven clothing in 2017 to November was still 63% higher than for the same period in 2016. In fact, at 81 million pieces of woven wool garments for the 11 months, it is the highest volume of these garments for this period since 2008.

The good news on the wool knitwear side is that exports lifted in November, by 8% year-on-year, the first monthly increase since January. There were large increases in exports to the European Union, South Korea and Hong Kong (the latter for transhipment to other countries). For the eleven months to November, China’s exports of wool knitwear were down by 11%. All destinations saw lower export volumes, led by a 27% in exports of wool knitwear to the US. This decline in exports to the US is a little worrying. Hopefully the increase in total exports of wool knitwear in November can be sustained in coming months.

Further details including charts showing China’s exports of wool knitwear and woven wool clothing for the eleven months to November for 2017 compared with the previous four years can be seen in the full Weekly Newsletter for the week ending 2nd February 2018. Available to NCWSBA members.