Since 2025, the international environment has been complex and changeable, the US "reciprocal tariff" policy has impacted the rules of international trade, the global economic and trade pattern has accelerated reshaping, and China's textile and apparel exports have been affected. With policy support, the vitality of the domestic demand and consumption market has been gradually released, but the consumption environment and residents' consumption willingness still need to be further improved and enhanced. Faced with a complex and severe situation, China's printing and dyeing industry has withstood the pressure, and the production situation in the first half of the year has remained generally stable, with the production of printed and dyed fabric achieving a slight increase, and the main product exports have continued to show an increasing trend, further highlighting the resilience of foreign trade. However, it is also necessary to see that the current market competition is further intensified, the export unit price of printed and dyed fabrics has significantly declined, the quality and efficiency of industry development are significantly under pressure, and the stable development in the second half of the year still faces many problems and challenges.

1. The production situation is generally stable, and the output achieves a slight increase

According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to June 2025, the output of printed and dyed fabric of the printing and dyeing industry enterprises above designated size increased by 0.56% year-on-year, a decrease of 5.18 percentage points from the first quarter. Textile products and clothing achieved a moderate growth in domestic sales, combined with the "rush to export" effect of the tariff suspension period, which pushed China's printed and dyed fabric output to maintain growth. In the first half of the year, China's main economic operation indicators were better than expected, with the GDP increasing by 5.3% year-on-year, and consumption became the main driving force for GDP growth. Driven by a series of policies to expand domestic demand and promote consumption, the consumption of textiles and clothing became more active, with the per capita clothing consumption expenditure of residents increasing by 2.1% year-on-year in the first half of the year, an acceleration of 0.9 percentage points from the first quarter; the retail sales of clothing, shoes, caps, and needle textiles of enterprises above designated size increased by 3.1% year-on-year, an acceleration of 1.8 percentage points from the same period last year; and the online sales of wearable goods increased by 1.4% year-on-year, an acceleration of 1.5 percentage points from the first quarter. In the second quarter, during the tariff suspension period between China and the United States, foreign textile and apparel enterprises accelerated their inventory-building pace, and the international market demand for China's printed and dyed fabrics maintained a relatively fast growth, but as the traditional off-season arrived, the growth rate of printed and dyed fabric output gradually declined.

2. The resilience of exports continues to be demonstrated, with a clear trend of volume increasing and prices falling

According to China's customs data, from January to June 2025, the export quantity of China's eight major categories of printed and dyed products reached 17.975 billion meters, an increase of 10.89% year-on-year, with the growth rate increasing by 8.16 percentage points compared to the same period last year; the export amount was $15.313 billion, a decrease of 0.54% year-on-year, with the growth rate falling by 1.27 percentage points compared to the same period last year; the average export unit price was $0.85/meter, a decrease of 10.30% year-on-year, with the decline increasing by 8.35 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Since the second quarter, the changes in the global textile and apparel trade pattern and the intensification of supply chain risks caused by the US tariff policy have put pressure on China's printed and dyed industry exports, but it has still maintained strong resilience and competitiveness in the international market, and the export quantity of major printed and dyed products in the first half of the year has still achieved rapid growth.

In the first half of 2025, the export quantity of China's eight major categories of printed and dyed products to ASEAN increased by 2.62% year-on-year to 4.082 billion meters, accounting for 22.71% of the total export volume; the export amount was $4.384 billion, a decrease of 8.68% year-on-year; the export average unit price was $1.07/meter, a decrease of 11.01% year-on-year. Since this year, the United States has unilaterally imposed tariff pressure on many ASEAN countries, combined with the trade barriers of the US original origin rules, resulting in a weaker performance of China's printed and dyed fabric exports to ASEAN than the overall export situation, and the growth rate of the export quantity of the eight major categories of printed and dyed products to ASEAN was 8.27 percentage points lower than the overall level. The RCEP member countries, with ASEAN as an important part, also show the same trend. From January to June, the export quantity of China's eight major categories of printed and dyed products to RCEP member countries increased by 2.77% year-on-year to 4.347 billion meters; the export amount was $4.623 billion, a decrease of 8.23% year-on-year; the export average unit price was $1.06/meter, a decrease of 10.71% year-on-year.

The slowdown in exports to ASEAN has prompted China's dyeing and printing industry to accelerate the expansion of other export markets. In the first half of the year, the quantity of the eight major categories of China's dyeing and printing products exported to countries such as Nigeria, Brazil, India, and Pakistan achieved rapid growth, with the quantity exported to Nigeria and Pakistan increasing by 66.57% and 47.18% year-on-year, respectively, and the quantity exported to India growing at a rate close to 20%. In terms of the average unit price of exports, the average export unit price to the top ten countries decreased by 14.65% year-on-year, among which the decrease in the export unit price to Nigeria, Vietnam, and Brazil all exceeded the industry's overall level.

3, significant pressure on quality and efficiency repair, and a significant decline in operating efficiency

At present, the main operating quality indicators of the dyeing and printing industry are still at a low level, and the overall operating efficiency is low. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2025, the three-expense ratio of large-scale dyeing and printing enterprises was 7.30%, an increase of 0.36 percentage points year-on-year, and the operating cost of enterprises increased; the turnover rate of finished products was 12.74 times/year, a decrease of 7.99% year-on-year; the turnover rate of accounts receivable was 7.49 times/year, a decrease of 4.79% year-on-year; the turnover rate of total assets was 0.91 times/year, a decrease of 7.01% year-on-year.

In the first half of the year, the operating income of large-scale dyeing and printing enterprises decreased by 5.29% year-on-year, the growth rate slowed down by 8.05 percentage points compared to the first quarter; the total profit decreased by 17.30% year-on-year, the growth rate slowed down by 24.28 percentage points compared to the first quarter; the profit rate of cost and expense was 3.78%, a decrease of 0.57 percentage points year-on-year; the profit rate of operating income was 3.55%, a decrease of 0.51 percentage points year-on-year. Among the 1,846 large-scale dyeing and printing enterprises, the number of loss-making enterprises was 730, with a loss rate of 39.54%, an increase of 2.91 percentage points year-on-year; the total loss of loss-making enterprises was 19.23 billion RMB, a decrease of 7.39% year-on-year. In the second quarter, the growth rate of the main economic efficiency indicators of the dyeing and printing industry turned negative, especially in June, the growth rate of operating income and total profit accelerated, and the operating pressure of dyeing and printing enterprises increased significantly.

4, stable operation is under pressure, and high-quality development is needed to enhance industrial resilience

In the first half of 2025, facing the uncertainties of the rapid changes in the external environment and the pressure of internal structural adjustment, China's printing and dyeing industry has generally shown strong resilience. Looking ahead to the second half, the printing and dyeing industry still faces many unstable and uncertain factors, the domestic effective demand is generally weak, and the negative impact of the US tariff policy on China's exports will further show in the second half, which will become an important factor affecting the stable development of the industry. At the beginning of August, the new round of tariff policies of the United States, which has basically been determined, will impose high tariffs on some products of transshipment trade with major trading countries other than China, which will become a new tariff barrier to China's textile fabric and clothing exports, and China's printing and dyeing industry will face multiple tests such as rising costs and intensified competition, while also further accelerating the international layout of China's printing and dyeing capacity.

From the domestic market perspective, there is still ample room for the national macro-policies to be further strengthened in the second half. With the push of the consumption-boosting policies, it is expected that consumption will continue to maintain a good development trend, and the "ballast" role of consumption on economic growth will continue to be reflected, and the overall situation of China's textile and clothing consumption is expected to gradually improve. Overall, in the second half of the year, China's printing and dyeing industry's exports will continue to face pressure, the growth rate of export quantity may slow down, the export unit price will still remain at a low level, and the operating efficiency is expected to improve, but the industry's operating pressure in the short term is still large. In the context of intertwined internal and external pressures, printing and dyeing enterprises need to strengthen their development confidence, strive to prevent and resolve risks and challenges in the foreign trade field, actively expand diversified international markets, continue to focus on the broad domestic demand market, continuously promote technological progress and product upgrading, accelerate the transformation of high-end, intelligent and green, and use the determinacy of high-quality development to respond to the uncertainty of the external environment, and promote the stable and good economic operation of the industry.

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