China’s Global Textile Export Share Hits Record 43.3% as Industry Moves Up the Value Chain
Date: August 18, 2026
China’s share of global textile exports climbed to a record 43.3% in 2024, while its share of global apparel exports slipped from a 2014 peak of 38.8% to 29.6%, according to World Trade Organization data compiled by the Australian National University’s Xue Huafei and reported by Reference News on August 15. The data point confirms that China is not exiting the textile industry but migrating upstream toward capital- and technology-intensive yarn, fabric and machinery production as labor-intensive garment assembly shifts to lower-wage economies.
Key Highlights:
- Textile Share Record: China’s share of world textile exports rose to a record 43.3% in 2024, even as the global textile market itself expanded on the back of yarn and fabric demand from new manufacturing hubs in South and Southeast Asia.
- Apparel Share Decline: China’s share of world apparel exports fell from a 38.8% peak in 2014 to 29.6% in 2024, while the United Nations Comtrade database shows Chinese apparel exports dropped 16.4% from 2013 to 2019 against a 14.9% rise in yarn and fabric shipments over the same period.
- Yarn and Fabric Momentum: Chinese yarn and fabric exports reached USD 83.79 billion in 2025 (yarn +4.1% YoY, fabric +1.0% YoY) and accelerated to USD 42.68 billion in the first half of 2026 (yarn +8.1%, fabric +1.7%), per China Customs data cited by the East Asia Forum piece.
- Southeast Asia Linkage: Vietnam and Bangladesh apparel exports grew 68% from 2013 to 2018, yet both economies remain heavily dependent on Chinese fabric, machinery and investment, illustrating that the regional supply chain continues to orbit a Chinese upstream core.
Why the Shift Matters:
Spinning, weaving and knitting are capital-, energy- and automation-intensive stages of the textile value chain, while cutting and sewing remain labor-intensive because robots still struggle with soft, deformable fabrics. Rising Chinese wages have pushed the labor-sensitive stages offshore, while financing conditions, power supply, logistics networks, factory automation and scale economies keep the upstream stages at home. The same dynamic is playing out inside China, with coastal garment assembly migrating inland to lower-cost provinces, slowing the pace of cross-border offshoring.
For Southeast Asian producers, the strategic question is no longer whether to compete with China on garment assembly but how to plug into a China-centered upstream supply chain. The East Asia Forum analysis concludes that China may be leaving the sewing room, but it is not leaving the textile industry.
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