Chinese textile firms are determined to streamline their export products and expand further into the world market as the United States threatens to slam its doors to several lines of China-made textile and garment products.
"It's a top priority for us to diversify our products and further tap the world market," said a business executive from Youngor based in the city of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province. "We must not cling to the US market alone."
"Domestic companies have to set up their own early warning systems," he said in a telephone interview with Xinhua Tuesday but declined to be named. "We'd be in a passive and embarrassing position if we hastily seek countermeasures only after other countries have imposed restrictions."
As one of China's most recognized name brands for garments, Youngor has avoided production of "100 percent cotton" shirts and jackets after the United States slapped quotas on Chinese-made cotton-knitted shirts and pants.
Yet most textile firms are sober-minded at the US restrictions.
"We cannot get anywhere by criticizing the United States alone, " said Jin Changyi, general manager of Golden Globe Textile Corp in the provincial capital Hangzhou. "The only thing we can do at the moment is to fix our production and marketing strategies to minimize the impacts of such restrictions."
To be specific, Jin said his company will focus on the Middle East and African markets and will increase the proportion of high-end products, particularly genuine silk garments.
Jin's company exports up to 400,000 pieces of cotton and silk garments every year, including approximately 50,000 pieces to the United States. Among its importers are leading US retailers including Wal-Mart.
Meida Garments Co., a leading textile exporter in east China's Shandong Province, has gradually replaced traditional cotton clothing with flax products ever since it got wind of potential US safeguard measures last year.
In the meantime, some textile dealers have called on domestic players to seek long-term development of the whole industry instead of short-term benefits of individual business alone.
"Many textile plants prefer US orders since they are often big orders and are easy to process," said Guo Haiping, a business representative for the European and American markets with Zhejiang Zhongda Shareholding Group Co. "But Chinese textile companies need to set up a self-disciplinary mechanism amongst themselves in order to better regulate product quantity, quality and prices and create a favorable domestic and international environment for long-term development."
China Chamber for Import and Export of Textiles issued an alert to domestic textile firms Monday warning them to suspend export of six lines of textile products to the United States.
The chamber said on its website that the United States stopped importing Chinese-made cotton-knitted shirts and cotton and man-made fiber underwear on July 5, and halted imports of cotton trousers on July 8. It also predicted the United States will soon shut the door to Chinese man-made fiber shirts, too, because it had imported 97.89 percent of the total limited volume set for China by July 13.
