Foreword: China, the United States, Japan, India, Turkey, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and the European Union (Including the United Kingdom, refers to the 28 member countries on the EU's foreign trade, the same below) (Hereinafter referred to as “9 countries and EU”), are the most important participant in world silk trade, and the trade value account for about 85%. Based on the data from the statistical departments of various countries (regions) provided by the U.S. "Global Trade Atlas" (Hereinafter referred to as “GTA”), we analyze the silk trade situation from January to September 2017 for reference.
1. General Trade Situation of Silk Products from 9 Countries and EU
According to the GTA data, in January to September 2017, the total trade value of silk products between the 9 countries and EU was 23.591 billion USD, up 2.95% year-on-year. Among them, export value was 12.06 billion USD, up 11.13% year-on-year, import value was 11.53 billion USD, down 4.44% year-on-year.
Export: Among the major exporters, China and India increased by 60.56% and 9.35% respectively, while the exports in EU, Turkey and Japan were still declining by 0.4%, 6.31% and 7.69% respectively. Exports in Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil and Australia have been somewhat larger with small scale. (Table 1 for details)
Imports: Among 9 countries and the EU, imports of silk products in Thailand and Brazil increased by 5.42% and 11.98% respectively, while others declined. Under the traditional major consumer markets, importing from EU, the United States, Japan and India dropped by 4.22%, 4.11%, 3.05% and 8.97% respectively. Compared with the first half-year, the decline narrowed slightly. (Table 1 for details)
2. Trade Situation of Silk from 9 Countries and EU
2.1 Amount
According to the GTA data, in January to September 2017, the total trade value of silk between 9 countries and EU was 842 billion USD, up 0.09% year-on-year. Among them, export value was 456 billion USD, down 1,45% year-on-year, import value was 385 billion USD, up 0.19% year-on-year.
Export: Among the major silk producers and exporters, only Brazil's exports increased by 7.42% while China and India declined by 1.32% and 5.43% respectively. (Table 2 for details)
Imports: Among the major silk consumer countries and regions, only the EU declined by 7.33% year-on-year, India and Japan registered a faster growth, up 9.58% and 16.98% year-on-year respectively. (Table 2 for details)
2.2 Export Volume and Unit Price
Export：From January to September 2017, export volume of silk between 9 countries and EU was 12,900 tons, up 5% year-on-year. Among the major produces and exporters, only India up 1.33 year-on-year while China and Brazil down 12,67% and 1.17% respectively. In terms of export unit prices, the export prices of major suppliers of raw silk were rising. The average export prices of silk in China, Brazil and Malaysia increased by 13%, 8.69% and 15.9% respectively over the same period of last year. However, the unit price of silk waste exported by Indian declined 6.67%. (Table 3 for details)
Import: From January to September 2017, import volume of silk between 9 countries and EU was10,500 tons，fell 9.35% year-on-year. Among the traditional markets, India and EU down by 4.25% and 12.78% respectively over the same period of last year, only Japan imported a year-on-year increase of 7.84%. In terms of unit price, the import prices in major markets all rose, imports from India, the EU and Japan increased by 14.45%, 6.24% and 8.47% respectively. (Table 4 for details)
3. Trade Situation of Silks and Satins from 9 Countries and EU
According to the GTA data, in January to September 2017, the total trade value of silks and satins between 9 countries and EU was 3.48 billion USD, an increase of 0.45% over 2016. Among them, export value was 2.042 billion USD, an increase of 2.36% over 2016, import value was 1.438 billion USD, declined 2.15% over 2016.
Export: Among the major exporters of silks and satins, exports value of EU, Turkey and America maintained increase, up by 5.78%, 5.62% and 12.95% respectively from a years earlier, China, Japan and India still declined but narrowed, down by 4.97%, 7.03% and 4.92% respectively from a years earlier.
Import: Among the major markets, the import value of EU, Turkey and Japan maintained increase, up by 1.24%, 5.39% and 5.33% respectively from a years earlier, total imports accounted for 60%, others dropped. (Table 5 for details)
4. Trade Situation of Silk Manufactured products from 9 Countries and EU
According to the GTA data, in January to September 2017, the total trade value of silk manufactured products from 9 countries and EU was 19.268 billion USD, up 3.55% year-on-year. Among them, export value was 9.561 billion USD, up 13.91 year-on-year, import value was 9.706% billion USD, down 4.96% year-on-year.
Export: As the major exporters of silk manufactured products, the total export value between EU, India, China and Turkey was 8.951 billion USD, accounting for 93.61%. There is large changes of trade situation, China and India soared 119.97% and 10.08% respectively, while EU and Turkey declined by 1.55% and 10.04% respectively.
Import: EU, America and Japan are still the major consumer markets for silk manufactured products. From January to September, total import value of them was 8.694 billion USD, accounting for 89.59%. Imports were declining, down 4.91%, 3.43% and 4.49% respectively year-on-year. (Table 6 for details).
5. Conclusion
From the above statistics, from January to September 2017, the trade volume of silk products between the 9 countries and the EU increased by 3.95%, especially for exports by 11.13%. However, the import and export of various countries (regions) showed that the increase was mainly caused by China driven by abnormal exports. In July 2017, China's exports of silk products plunged 31.53% in September after the Chinese Customs canceled its supervision over the shopping of tourist commodities. According to the survey China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel (CCCT) made in the past two years, over 90% of the 1.425 billion USD of silk products exported in other forms of trade from January to September are untrue, if this part is removed, the trade value will be 22.045 billion USD, down 2.68% from the same period of last year, and the export value will also be 10.515 billion USD, down 0.73% from a year earlier. Therefore, we can confirm that in the first three quarters, the world silk trade is still in decline.
Silk: The decline of raw silk trading value, unit price has risen, which related to the silk price changed in Chinese market.
Silks and Satins : The import value of EU, Japan and Turkey have increased while other markets are still declining. Among the major exporters, the EU and Turkey have maintained their growth while China have narrowed.
Silk Manufactured Products: Imports from major markets both declined and the decline remained large, only India maintained a resumption of growth.
Please have some information for appendix.
Translation: International Silk Union Secretariat
