Since the beginning of this year, China's textile industry has maintained steady growth through actively overcoming various negative factors such as weak market demand, price difference between overseas cotton and local-grown cotton and increasing manufacturing costs and by positively accelerating industry restructuring, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement.

1. Production grew steadily and part of the products grew at a faster pace

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that in the first quarter of this year, the industrial value added of textile enterprises above certain scale (annual revenues exceeding CNY 20 million) grew 6.7% year-on-year, 0.3 percentage points higher than the national average; above-scale textile enterprises produced 8.64 million tons of yarn, up 4.1% year-on-year, with the growth 2.2 percentage points slower than the same period of last year; the production of chemical fibers stood at 10.83 million tons, up 11.9% year-on-year, with the growth 7.1 percentage points higher than the same period of last year; the production of fabric and apparel stood respectively at 15.4 billion meters and 6.6 billion pieces, up 4.1% and 3.9% year-on-year, accelerating 1.4 and 0.9 percentage points respectively from a year earlier.

2. Investment picked up, with the number of newly-commenced projects increasing rapidly.

According to the NBS, in January-March, textile projects each costing more than CNY 5 million attracted a total fixed-asset investment of CNY 178.5 billion, up 15.4% year-on-year, with the growth accelerating 2.6 percentage points compared with the same period of last year; the number of newly-commenced projects increased 10.4% year-on-year, accelerating 18.4 percentage points. Region-wise, the investment in the eastern and central regions grew 15.4% and 20.0% respectively, while that in the western areas only edged up 0.1%.

3. Export continued to grow, but exports to leading markets declined

Data of the General Administration of Customs show that China's exports of textiles and apparel grew 3.1% year-on-year to US$ 61.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, accelerating 2.6 percentage points compared to the same period of last year, but decelerating 16.8 points compared to January-February period of this year. The export of textiles grew 4.3% year-on-year to US$ 25.3 billion, while the export of apparel grew 2.2% year-on-year to US$ 36.2 billion. In the first quarter of this year, China's exports of textiles and apparel to EU (China's largest traditional market) dropped by 0.3% year-on-year in value term, with the growth decelerating 10.3 percentage points compared to same period of last year; the exports to Japan (China's fourth largest market) dropped by 10.0% year-on-year, with the growth decelerating 2.9 percentage points compared to same period of last year.

4. Profit increased steadily with improved profit rate

According to the NBS, in the first quarter of 2015, the prime business revenue of above-scale textile enterprises totaled more than CNY 1.45 trillion, up 5.6% year-on-year; the total profits amounted to CNY 71.4 billion, up 11.3%, with the sales profit rate standing at 4.9%, improving 0.3 percentage point compared to the same period of last year. The deficit of loss-making enterprises dropped by 4.9% year-on-year, with the growth decelerating 20.4 percentage points from a year earlier.