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CHINA: Many countries Still Cheaper For Clothes - Research
23 Feb 2005
Source: just-style.com





China, as many predicted, has dropped its clothing prices since the US, EU and Canada removed quotas against it on January 1. But competitor countries – all a lot nearer its main markets and some actually in the EU – are still cheaper according to post-quota data.
An analysis of the EU’s import licence scheme in the February edition of ‘The Source,' a monthly apparel industry newsletter published by UK-based apparel sourcing consultancy Clothesource, shows that in almost every category of clothing, China’s cuts this year are so limited that even some EU members now still undercut China for some clothes categories.
“China was always a relatively expensive place to buy clothes from,” said Mike Flanagan, Clothesource CEO. “For instance, in autumn 2004, T-shirts arriving in the EU from China were 168 per cent more expensive than from Bangladesh, which had no quota limit and wasn’t subject to import duty.
"Chinese T-shirts for shipping to Europe are now 35 per cent cheaper than they were a year ago. But that still makes them twice the price of T-shirts from Bangladesh. And China’s still being undercut by other countries in suits, coats, trousers, underwear, dresses, blouses, shirts, sweaters, socks – every apparel category except formal men’s jackets.
“And reports of the death of the rest of the world’s apparel industry are very much exaggerated. Socks cost Europeans 72 per cent more in China than in Egypt. The Chinese are going to have to sharpen their act a lot more before many Europeans are going to go all that way to pay twice as much as they can in their own backyard.”