According to statistics released from the Hong Kong Census & Statistics Department, the Special Administrative Region’s trade in textile fibers, textiles and apparel in 2017 posted smaller decreases in exports and imports compared to 2016 values.
Domestic exports of textile fibers and textiles (yarn, fabrics and made-ups) increased over the previous year.
2017 imports of textile fibers, textiles and apparel decreased by 4.8% compared to the previous year to HK$152,880 million, while domestic exports of the same items dropped 15.1% to HK$928 million. The decreases were respectively 11.1 and 8.3 percentage points smaller than in 2016.
Of this, domestic exports of textile fibers and textiles increased by 8.3% and 7.2% to HK$3.9 million and HK$606 million respectively. Domestic exports of textile fibers increased for the first time in seven years since 2010, and those of textiles also grew for the first time in 25 years since 1992, the oldest statistically comparable year.
Even for re-exports of textile fibers, textiles and apparel by major country/region of origin, the decreases were smaller for all items. 2017 re-exports of Mainland China-made fabrics decreased by 2.7% to HK$44,123 million; the decrease was 10.3 points smaller than in 2016. Reflecting the development of apparel manufacturing operations in ASEAN, exports of fabrics are growing to this region.