By+Shen+Da

The recovery of overall growth in industry operation was more obvious， with sustainable improvement of benefits， general increase on domestic sales and stable production. However， affected by the decline in export price， the export continued the negative growth trend from 2015， resulting in sustainable loss in exports.

General performance

Growth rate rose slightly

The growth rate of home textile industry increased in 2016， after experiencing the adjustment in 2015. According to the National Bureau of Statistics， the main business income of 1913 enter- prises above designated size reached 61.64 billion yuan， up 6.36% year-on-year， increasing by 4.42 percentage points over the same period and 5.82 percentages points compared to the whole 2015. The main business income of 16 industrial clusters reached 69.28 billion yuan， up 6.2% year on year， increasing by 3 percentage points from a year earlier. The main business income of 205 enterprises tracked by association reached 19.24 billion yuan， up 0.8% year on year， falling by 2.7 percentage points over the same period last year.

Benefit continued to improve

In the first quarter of 2016， total profits of 1913 enterprises above designated size reached 3.5 billion yuan， up 8.79% year on year， slipping by 3.72 percentage points over the same period； profit margin was 5.69%， up 0.13 percentage point.

The main business cost of those enterprises registered 53.94 billion yuan， up 6.34% year on year， basically flat with the main business income； gross profit margin was 12.48%， an about-zero increase of 0.01 percentage point.

Three costs in per hundred yuan sales revenue was 6.06 yuan， 0.09 yuan less than the same period in 2015， of which the growth rate was lower than main business income. Three costs added up to 3.73 billion yuan， up 4.8%， with operating costs up 3%， administration costs up 6.06%， and financial costs up 5.59%.

The total profits of 13 industrial clusters registered 3.91 billion yuan， a rise by 12.3% in the first quarter of 2016. The total profits of 205 enterprises investigated by association turned out to be 1.12 billion yuan， up 7.6%.

Domestic sales generally increased

In the first quarter of 2016， the domestic output value added up to 49 billion yuan， an increase of 8%， 6 percentage points more than previous value of 2.1%， of which the value of bed products was 22 billion yuan， up 6.8%， increasing by 10.4% compared to the previous value of -3.6%； the value of towel arrived at 15 billion yuan， up 8.1%， rising 5.4 percentage points compared to previous value of 2.7%； the value of uphostery achieved at 3.48 billion yuan， an uptick of 15.5%， 3.7 percentage points higher than 11.8%. The domestic output value of 13 industrial clusters registered 54.48 billion yuan， up 3.6%， 2.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year， as well as the value of 205 enterprises tracked by association added up to 13.76 billion yuan， an increase of 2.9%.endprint

The retail of traditional large-scale stores was not optimistic， according to the data of China General Chamber of Commerce， showing that needles textiles sales in large-scale retail stores declined by 8.9%， with previous value of -2.5%， and bed-ding sales fell by 4.9% with a smaller decline， and previous value of -7.4%. It is worth mentioning that comparing with the decline in sales of largescale stores， the specialized market transaction volume of home textile products maintained stable growth， especially for the Dieshiqiao market， the most representative bedding market， with market turnover up 19.54%， as well as the Gaoyang textile trade city up 4.55% and Haining home textile city up 4% year on year.

Export

According to Customs statistics， from January to March， Chinas textile and apparel exports were 56.6 billion dollars， down 5.2%， among which， textile exports were 23.45 billion dollars， down 2.2%； apparel exports were 33.18 billion dollars， down 7.3%. Affected by the global economic downturn and decrease in demand， Chinas textile and apparel exports continued to decline， as well as the export of home textiles.

Export of home textiles

Due to the weak economy and decrease in demand， from January to March this year， the exports of Chinas home textiles added up to 8.32 billion dollars， down 5.7%. Among them， export volume grow by 0.9%， and export prices fell by 6.5%， which was the main reason for decline in export.

A significant drop in the US market

Chinas home textiles exports went down in the US market on the basis of a high growth. Specially speaking， from January to March this year， the exports to America fell by 5.5%， less than the former value of 16.8%， but still more than the year before.

A slight increase in EU and Japanese Market

A slight increase of export in EU and Japanese market was achieved on the low growth rate of 2015， of which the exports to EU increased by 2.2%， with the former value of 0.5%， and the exports to Japan slightly rose by 1%， with former value of -13.9%.

A fall in the market of ASEAN and the Middle East

In the past few years， Chinas exports of home textile products to ASEAN have kept sustained high growth， in spite of periodical decline at present， still with a huge overall scale. From January to March this year， the total exports to ASEAN fell by 9.1%， with previous value of 25%， less than last year， but more than the year before. Similar with ASEAN market on the export volume and growth trend， the exports to the Middle East market dropped by 14.6%， with previous value of 11.7%.endprint

New growth in South Asia & flat in Russia

In other major emerging markets， due to Indias economy developing into a new point in the word， from January to March， Chinas home textile products export increased to the three countries of South Asia， including India， Pakistan and Bangladesh， up 5.2%， which was difficult to be kept with previous value of 47.8%. The exports to Russia was flat with the low previous value of -57.9%.

Export of six categories of products

From January to March this year， Chinas home textile exports of all categories declined， compared to the same period last year， expect for the towel exports up 4.4%， ， of which the exports of bedding， uphostery and carpet fell less than others， specifically， bedding exports down 4.7%， fabric down 3.3%， carpet down 15.2%， and textiles for kitchen-used down 16.8%.

In terms of export volume and price of Chinas home textile products in the first quarter of 2016， the export volume of carpet and kitchenused decreased， while other products increased； also the price of all products has declined year on year， resulting in the decline of exports.endprint