In the global textile industry, one country's production capacity stands apart from all others. China has manufactured 1.09 gigatonnes of textile fibres over four and a half decades - enough raw material to clothe the world's population many times over. This concentration of manufacturing power has made China indispensable to global clothing production, with 437 million tonnes of net exports over 45 years establishing the country as the primary supplier to international markets.
China has emerged as the undisputed leader in global textile fibre production, establishing a manufacturing empire. The country now accounts for more than half of global textile fibre processing capacity, a concentration of industrial capability that has fundamentally altered international trade dynamics and supply chain dependencies. This dominance becomes even more pronounced when considering that global fibre production reached 124 million tonnes in 2023, with China maintaining a commanding share of this output.
These revelations emerge from research titled 'Weaving through time: Stocks and flows of textile fibers in China (1978–2022)', led by Bing Zhu from Tsinghua University's Institute for Circular Economy and published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling. The study, backed by the Tsinghua-Sinopec Joint Institute for Green Chemical Industry Supporting Project, provides the first comprehensive quantification of China's textile fibre flows across nearly five decades of industrial development.
The scale becomes even more striking when examining export patterns. China achieved a net export of 437 million tonnes of fibres and textiles over the 45-year study period (1978-2022), demonstrating the country's capacity to serve both domestic consumption and global demand. By 2022, China maintained 347 million tonnes of fibres as stocks within its textile system, representing both operational scale and strategic buffer capacity that enables response to global demand fluctuations.
China's dominance spans the entire textile value chain, encompassing raw material processing of cotton, hemp, silk, and synthetic fibres, through chemical production of dyes and additives, to mechanical manufacturing and sophisticated logistics management. This vertical integration across the entire country enables China to control costs and production timelines in ways that fragmented competitors cannot replicate. The country's textile industry benefits from more efficient supply chain management, modern infrastructure, and higher worker productivity, allowing Chinese producers to maintain cost advantages even as other factors have changed.
