Intertextile Shanghai’s spring edition set to start, as China overtakes US as world’s largest apparel market

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Mar 8, 2019

On March 12 to 14, the national exhibition centre in Shanghai will host the spring 2019 edition of the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics show. China’s main textile sourcing event, held in parallel with the Chic Shanghai show, will showcase over 3,300 exhibitors from 20 countries, and expects some 80,000 industry visitors.

The show is organised jointly by Messe Frankfurt and the Chinese Textile Chamber of Commerce (CCPIT-Tex), and will welcome 2,700 local exhibitors and over 500 specialists from outside China. As usual, it will host a section dedicated to European manufacturers, with companies from Austria, France, Germany, Italy (in the ‘Milano Unica’ pavilion) the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Country sections will also be dedicated to Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India and Pakistan.

Among Intertextile Shanghai’s many special sections, the ‘Premium Wool Zone’, the ‘Accessories Vision’ section, showcasing over 450 specialist suppliers for components like buttons, zips, labels and more, and the ‘Verve for Design’ section, presenting textile design from all over the world.

However, one of the main attractions of this spring edition, traditionally more compact than the September one, will undoubtedly be the ‘All About Sustainability’ section. It will feature suppliers of eco-responsible materials, of sustainability testing and verification services, and will stage a series of conferences on sustainability for the whole duration of the show.

Intertextile will again also feature the ‘Functional Lab’ section, where 280 manufacturers will present their high-tech products, with functionalities ranging from heat resistance to breathability. The ‘Beyond Denim’ section will include 110 denim specialists from China, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam and other countries.

The show also operates a ‘Business Matching Programme’ to facilitate contacts between exhibitors and foreign buyers. Significant buyer delegations will be coming from Bangladesh and Vietnam, and the organisers also mentioned the presence of buyers from labels hailing from Austria, Korea, Malaysia, the UK and the USA.

China, the world’s largest apparel market

Intertextile Shanghai will be held in six of the huge exhibition centre's halls. The event’s previous spring edition, in March 2018, attracted 84,314 visitors from 104 countries. It recorded a massive 15% increase in attendance, going hand in hand with a rise in the number of exhibitors to 3,386, as the Chinese textile/apparel market is in full bloom.

The show’s forthcoming edition coincides with China overtaking the USA as the world's largest apparel market. In 2018, the market in China was worth $373 billion, as opposed to $355 billion in the USA, until now the leading country. Another element spicing up the show's atmosphere is the ongoing trade war between the USA and China.

According to some exhibitors at the Texworld show (also organised by Messe Frankfurt) which was recently held in Paris, the tensions between the two world giants might encourage Chinese exporters to favour European buyers. According to IFM, the French Fashion Institute, last year China was the leading supplier to the EU both for apparel, with exports worth $26 billion, and textiles ($10.5 billion).