Since the first industrial revolution, Britain took the lead in establishing the manufacturing center of the textile industry in the world, but then the second industrial revolution in the 1930s first came into being in the United States. With the rapid development of power, chemical industry, steel and other industries, standardization and scale became the new synonym of the textile industry. At this time, the global textile industry center was also transferring to the United States. After the Second World War, although Japan was a defeated country, with the support of the United States, the industrial level recovered rapidly. At this time, the manufacturing center of the world textile industry gradually shifted to this place, and at this time, the global industrial chain was gradually forming. However, in the 1960s-1970s, after a period of development in Japan and Germany, the human cost gradually increased. As a labor-intensive and low value-added industry, the textile industry began to gradually shift to the "four Asian dragons" and other regions with rich human resources and low cost. In the 1980s, under the reform and opening up, China had obvious advantages in industrial policies and abundant labor resources. At this time, the "four Asian dragons" have gradually moved into the middle and high-income level, relatively low-end textile industry, at this time began to transfer to the developing countries led by China.
After 40 years of reform and opening up, China's economy is developing rapidly, but the human cost is also gradually rising. As a labor-intensive industry, the textile industry is also gradually moving outward. Especially in recent years, the global trade friction, especially the aggravation of trade friction between China and the United States, has further promoted the transfer of textile industry.
In recent years, although the export volume of textile yarn, fabric and products has increased, with the development of trade friction between the United States and China, and some countries such as India, Mexico, Indonesia and other countries have launched anti-dumping against China. The overall export growth slowed down significantly. In October 2019, China's export of textile yarn, fabric and products reached US $10155.1 million, and in January October 2019, China's export of textile yarn, fabric and products reached US $99.310 billion, up 0.4% year on year. In the field of clothing, the export volume is declining year by year. In October 2019, China exported 12.719 billion US dollars of clothing and accessories; in January October 2019, China exported 125.504 billion US dollars of textile yarn, fabric and products, down 4.8% year on year.
From the perspective of industrial transfer, Southeast Asia has become the main area of textile industry transfer in the later period.
Taking Vietnam as an example, after the rapid development in recent years, Vietnam has become one of the three largest textile and clothing export countries in the world. At this time, with the advantages of cheap labor, production resources and preferential tariff policies for Japan, South Korea and EU countries, more and more overseas enterprises transferred orders to this place. Foreign brands such as UNIQLO and Nike, and domestic factories such as Bailong Oriental and Rutai a have all increased their industrial layout in Vietnam. As an obvious export-oriented country, Vietnam's textile and clothing exports are increasing year by year. By 2018, Vietnam's textile and garment exports had exceeded 36 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.01% year on year. And the highest growth since 2015. At the end of 2018, Vietnam's goal of reaching 40 billion US dollars in textile and garment exports in 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 10.8%, is also expected to be achieved this year. In the first seven months of 2019, Vietnam's textile and garment exports reached US $18.3 billion, an increase of 10.5 percentage points year on year, and 45.7% of the annual target has been achieved.
In conclusion, although the textile and garment industry in Southeast Asia has made great progress in recent years, it still faces some constraints. For example, the infrastructure is not perfect and most of the raw materials for production are imported. At present, China's status as the largest textile processing country in the world is still unshakable, and industrial upgrading will be the development direction of China's later textile and garment industry. In the global chain, brands, sales, advanced fabrics and high-quality raw materials are all controlled by enterprises in the United States, Europe, Japan, etc. China and Southeast Asia are still at the low end of the value chain. The future development direction will be to improve the added value of China's products, increase the research and development of textile raw materials, and develop towards brand and high added value. The future development prospect of the industry will be bright and beautiful.
