Recently, T-shirts suddenly started to sell like hotcakes on Alibaba International Station, and exports are booming. According to a clothing export company, inquiries in the past two days have increased by more than 400% compared with the same period last year, and most of these customers are from the United Kingdom. According to Alibaba backend data, since the epidemic, the export order volume of T-shirts on the platform has increased by 118% year-on-year, with orders from the United Kingdom ranking first in Europe and accounting for 43%.
Why is the demand for T-shirts so strong just after summer has just begun? And why do most of these T-shirt orders come from the UK?
In fact, these exported T-shirts are related to the arrival of summer. It has little to do with it, but because British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently recommended that people wear fabric masks in closed places. The so-called fabric masks are made from clothes, and official documents also detail how to make masks from old clothes. This is why most of these inquiries and orders come from the UK.
The current global epidemic still shows no signs of improvement, and masks and other anti-epidemic supplies are Still in very short supply. At this time, some countries have begun to accelerate the pace of resumption of work and production, which to some extent has also aggravated the shortage of epidemic prevention supplies. The recent suggestion by the British Prime Minister to use clothing to make masks is also a helpless move, but it has inadvertently boosted the sales of T-shirts and other clothing.
Everything is possible under the epidemic
This year’s spring and summer clothing market was almost abandoned due to the epidemic. At the beginning of the year, due to the raging domestic epidemic and industrial shutdowns, spring and summer clothing production came to a complete standstill. However, some companies that prepared goods years ago have no choice but to pile them in warehouses due to logistical difficulties and store closures. It took a long time for the domestic epidemic to be effectively controlled, but the foreign epidemic started to spread like a wild horse running wild. The production and export of spring and summer clothing have been hit hard again.
But who would have thought that summer T-shirts, which seem to have nothing to do with epidemic prevention supplies, would suddenly be highly sought after in the market. Although it is only part of summer clothing, it can also boost the confidence of textile people. The upstream knitted fabrics, printing and dyeing factories of T-shirts will also benefit closely. It is currently reported that some weaving and dyeing factories specializing in knitted fabrics are bucking the trend.
Coincidentally, this year there are many textiles similar to T-shirts that have been “flopped” by the epidemic. Among them, the most exciting one is the sudden news that products such as polyester taffeta can be used as protective clothing.
In recent years, the production capacity of polyester taffeta and other products has been extremely overcapacity. Especially this year, orders are scarce and inventories are high. But because it can make protective clothing, orders for hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of meters have come one after another. Weaving factories and printing and dyeing factories were quickly revitalized. The inventory of gray fabrics since the beginning of the new year was cleared out in a few days. Workers who had stopped production and were on vacation were regrouped. Light blue polyester taffeta was seen flying everywhere in the market.
However, related companies such as taffeta are rational. The orders brought by the epidemic can only make splashes, but cannot make big waves. A wave of shipments and consumption of part of the inventory are already satisfactory. Continuing to invest more and reserve raw material gray fabrics is not a unified approach for textile people. The global economy is shrinking, the demand for textiles and clothing is sluggish, and orders for fabrics are very limited. It is difficult to satisfy the entire market just by relying on epidemic prevention needs.
Similarly, we must also remain rational regarding the popularity of T-shirts. First of all, the protective capabilities of masks modified from clothing are still unknown. Once it is reported that the effect is not good or a large number of masks flood in to replace them, it will inevitably hit the related clothing exports seriously. On the other hand, clothing masks are different from disposable masks in that they can be used multiple times to reduce usage costs. The demand for clothing for the purpose of making masks is bound to be limited, and a wave of market trends is fleeting and not suitable for large-scale follow-up.
The epidemic is full of opportunities but also risks. Markets and policies are changing too fast, and what appear to be opportunities may often be traps. The more textile people see others making money, the more they must keep a cool head and never blindly enter the market to take over.
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