Is there an alternative to China for apparel sourcing?
Report description
Over the past few years, it has become commonplace for buyers to be heard thinking China has become uncompetitive, and for China's competitors to repeat the claim even more loudly.
In Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing?, garment industry consultancy Clothesource examines these claims, and compares them with the past few years' sales and pricing evidence about China and its 70 major competitors worldwide.
With dozens of tables, charts and country profiles, Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? concludes that the simple answer to this question is "no". Barring some catastrophic event, China will continue to dominate global apparel sourcing overall until at least 2025 - and if it ever does begin to show significant share loss, there is no one alternative country to which production will shift. But China does not dominate sourcing for every major buying country in every product category.
Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? looks at why China dominates overall and the areas where it does not dominate, assesses the current and evolving competitiveness of alternative locations, and makes some tentative predictions of how garment manufacturing will develop to the end of this decade.
In Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing?, garment industry consultancy Clothesource examines these claims, and compares them with the past few years' sales and pricing evidence about China and its 70 major competitors worldwide.
With dozens of tables, charts and country profiles, Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? concludes that the simple answer to this question is "no". Barring some catastrophic event, China will continue to dominate global apparel sourcing overall until at least 2025 - and if it ever does begin to show significant share loss, there is no one alternative country to which production will shift. But China does not dominate sourcing for every major buying country in every product category.
Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? looks at why China dominates overall and the areas where it does not dominate, assesses the current and evolving competitiveness of alternative locations, and makes some tentative predictions of how garment manufacturing will develop to the end of this decade.
But sourcing from China has its dangers, as the market discovered between 2010 and 2011, and Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? believes all buyers need to have contingency plans for a re-emergence of those dangers.
Those plans start with improving buyers' understanding of alternatives. So purchase of Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing? offers a discount equivalent to its full purchase price on The Clothesource Handbook of Apparel Sourcing: 2012 Edition the definitive detailed guide to the sourcing strengths and weaknesses of the world's 70 major apparel-making countries.
Table of contents
A. Introduction and Executive Summary
a. Introduction
b. Conclusions
B. National shares of the world apparel market
a. The current market position
b. The global apparel market: retail
c. The global apparel market: the move offshore
i. Two decades of change
ii. The financial crisis 2008-???
iii. Chinese reaction to 2009
iv. 2010 - early 2011: The multiple whammy
v. 2011
d. So why does everyone think China has a competitiveness problem?
e. Summary
C. The perfect supplying country
a. The criteria
i. Fundamental criteria
ii. Housekeeping factors
b. Japan and China
c. The central truth of garment making: it is a global business
D. How and why China dominates
a. How China dominates
b. Summary of Chinafs relative positioning
c. Why China dominates, and its relevance to the future
i. Population
ii. Investment . and consequent capacity
iii. Government manipulation
iv. Working conditions
d. The effect on other countries
i. Raw materials
E. Conclusions and next steps
a. Conclusions
b. The key next step
Appendix A: Profiles
1. Albania
2. Argentina
3. Armenia
4. Bangladesh
5. Belarus
6. Bolivia
7. Bosnia
8. Botswana
9. Brazil
10. Brunei
11. Bulgaria
12. Burma
13. Cambodia
14. Chile
15. China
16. Colombia
17. Costa Rica
18. Croatia
19. Czech Republic
20. Dominican Republic
21. Ecuador
22. Egypt
23. El Salvador
24. Estonia
25. Ethiopia
26. Georgia
27. Guatemala
28. Haiti
29. Honduras
30. Hungary
31. India
32. Indonesia
33. Israel
34. Jordan
35. Kenya
36. Laos
37. Latvia
38. Lesotho
39. Lithuania
40. Macedonia
41. Madagascar
42. Malaysia
43. Mauritius
44. Mexico
45. Moldova
46. Mongolia
47. Morocco
48. Nepal
49. Nicaragua
50. North Korea
51. Pakistan
52. Peru
53. Philippines
54. Poland
55. Romania
56. Russia
57. Serbia
58. Slovakia
59. South Africa
60. South Korea
61. Sri Lanka
62. Swaziland
63. Syria
64. Taiwan
65. Thailand
66. Tunisia
67. Turkey
68. UAE
69. Ukraine
70. Uzbekistan
71. Vietnam
List of Tables
Table 1 Top 20 apparel supplying countries
Table 2 Ten fastest growing apparel suppliers
Table 3 Share of Chinese exports
Table 4 China share history, by category
Table 5 China alternatives
Table 6 Raw materials in leading garment making countries
List of Figures
Figure 1 China share of Western apparel imports
Figure 2 World apparel market ($trn)
Figure 3 Total Western apparel imports (bn pieces)
Figure 4 Year on year change in Western apparel imports (in pieces)
Figure 5 Monthly average cotton price (Cotlook A)
Figure 6 Apparel inflation
Figure 7 China's share of US apparel imports
Figure 8 China population
Figure 9 Chinese productivity
a. Introduction
b. Conclusions
B. National shares of the world apparel market
a. The current market position
b. The global apparel market: retail
c. The global apparel market: the move offshore
i. Two decades of change
ii. The financial crisis 2008-???
iii. Chinese reaction to 2009
iv. 2010 - early 2011: The multiple whammy
v. 2011
d. So why does everyone think China has a competitiveness problem?
e. Summary
C. The perfect supplying country
a. The criteria
i. Fundamental criteria
ii. Housekeeping factors
b. Japan and China
c. The central truth of garment making: it is a global business
D. How and why China dominates
a. How China dominates
b. Summary of Chinafs relative positioning
c. Why China dominates, and its relevance to the future
i. Population
ii. Investment . and consequent capacity
iii. Government manipulation
iv. Working conditions
d. The effect on other countries
i. Raw materials
E. Conclusions and next steps
a. Conclusions
b. The key next step
Appendix A: Profiles
1. Albania
2. Argentina
3. Armenia
4. Bangladesh
5. Belarus
6. Bolivia
7. Bosnia
8. Botswana
9. Brazil
10. Brunei
11. Bulgaria
12. Burma
13. Cambodia
14. Chile
15. China
16. Colombia
17. Costa Rica
18. Croatia
19. Czech Republic
20. Dominican Republic
21. Ecuador
22. Egypt
23. El Salvador
24. Estonia
25. Ethiopia
26. Georgia
27. Guatemala
28. Haiti
29. Honduras
30. Hungary
31. India
32. Indonesia
33. Israel
34. Jordan
35. Kenya
36. Laos
37. Latvia
38. Lesotho
39. Lithuania
40. Macedonia
41. Madagascar
42. Malaysia
43. Mauritius
44. Mexico
45. Moldova
46. Mongolia
47. Morocco
48. Nepal
49. Nicaragua
50. North Korea
51. Pakistan
52. Peru
53. Philippines
54. Poland
55. Romania
56. Russia
57. Serbia
58. Slovakia
59. South Africa
60. South Korea
61. Sri Lanka
62. Swaziland
63. Syria
64. Taiwan
65. Thailand
66. Tunisia
67. Turkey
68. UAE
69. Ukraine
70. Uzbekistan
71. Vietnam
List of Tables
Table 1 Top 20 apparel supplying countries
Table 2 Ten fastest growing apparel suppliers
Table 3 Share of Chinese exports
Table 4 China share history, by category
Table 5 China alternatives
Table 6 Raw materials in leading garment making countries
List of Figures
Figure 1 China share of Western apparel imports
Figure 2 World apparel market ($trn)
Figure 3 Total Western apparel imports (bn pieces)
Figure 4 Year on year change in Western apparel imports (in pieces)
Figure 5 Monthly average cotton price (Cotlook A)
Figure 6 Apparel inflation
Figure 7 China's share of US apparel imports
Figure 8 China population
Figure 9 Chinese productivity
Related research categories
By sector: Apparel and clothing, Trade and sourcing
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