Geopolitical tensions have hindered China’s imports of fibre (mostly cotton) from Australia, although, despite diplomatic concerns, Chinese garment exports to Australia have remained high in recent years. According to trade data research, Australia’s fibre imports have decreased by 41% over the previous four years, while China’s clothing exports have climbed by 44% in 2022 compared to 2018.
According to Fibre2Fashion’s market research tool TexPro, China bought $3.177 billion in fibre from Australia in 2018. However, this amount is expected to fall by 41% to $1.860 billion in 2022.
Imports fell precipitously during the epidemic, from $2.592 billion in 2019 to $1.441 billion in 2020. However, imports increased slightly in 2021 to $1.971 billion before falling again to $1.860 billion in 2022. China bought fibre worth $374.693 million in the first quarter of 2023.
In terms of volume, China imported 591.499 kg of fibre in 2018, which fell to 539.079 million in 2019. The import will be cut in half to 250.601 million kg in Covid year 2020. It will fall to 216.051 million kg in 2021 and 199.652 million kg in 2022. In January-March 2023, imports totalled 50.583 million kg.
