China's September Apparel Exports Jump 24% to $15.4 Billion

China's apparel exports rose 24 percent year on year to $15.4 billion in September, the category's strongest performance of 2026 and a sharp reversal from March, when shipments fell nearly 30 percent. Footwear exports grew an estimated 20.2 percent to $3.5 billion, China's General Administration of Customs reported, after a 40 percent year-over-year decline in March and a 4.7 percent contraction across the first eight months of the year.

Textile exports rose 19 percent to $14.2 billion, the second-highest single-month growth rate of 2026 behind the 20.5 percent jump recorded across January and February.

What drove the turnaround?

Total Chinese exports accelerated 36.3 percent in September to $447.2 billion, pushing the monthly trade surplus to $133.5 billion. The year-to-date surplus now stands at $938.1 billion, keeping Beijing on pace to surpass last year's record $1.2 trillion.

Shipments to the U.S. across all categories surged 39.6 percent to $47.9 billion — the sixth consecutive month of growth, building on 34.4 percent expansion in August. The comparison base flatters the figures: U.S.-bound shipments plunged 27 percent in September 2025 amid heavy trade tensions.

The tariff backdrop has also shifted. Late last month, Washington and Beijing extended the truce first brokered last fall through January 2027, alongside $30 billion in tariff cuts on both sides.

Minsheng Bank chief economist Wen Bin wrote in a Thursday research note: "Over 90 percent of these products are exempt from all previously imposed tariffs and enjoying most-favored-nation tariff treatment, reducing rates from over 30 percent to around 2 to 3 percent, a significant decrease." He added that the exemptions "primarily benefit labor-intensive products such as home furnishings, appliances, children's products, entertainment goods and festive supplies."

Was the footwear recovery real volume or just price?

Both, according to Wen. Shoe prices jumped 6.6 percent in September while volumes increased 12.8 percent, "showing a simultaneous increase in both volume and price, reversing the previous trend of rising prices but falling volume."

From January through August, apparel exports had grown just 2.5 percent, while footwear had contracted 4.7 percent. September marked the first month in 2026 where both categories posted standout gains across all markets.

Semiconductors and computing contributed more than 13 percentage points of overall export growth, according to Nguyen Hoang Nam, a China-focused economist at Capital Economics — meaning the wider figure leaned far less on apparel and footwear than the garment numbers alone suggest.

How broad was the demand?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations remained China's largest export market, absorbing $81.7 billion in September shipments, up 52.3 percent. Malaysia led all major markets with an 81.4 percent jump to $14.6 billion, followed by Thailand at 64.8 percent and Vietnam at 53.3 percent. Vietnam took in $25.6 billion, the highest total for any ASEAN country.

The EU imported $60.2 billion in Chinese goods, up 25.3 percent, with Germany at $13.1 billion and the Netherlands at $9.3 billion the bloc's top two markets. South Korea grew 68.2 percent to $20.6 billion, its fastest pace since 2021. India rose 47.8 percent to $17.4 billion; Japan gained 15.8 percent to $15.6 billion.

What does the macro picture mean for sourcing?

China's third-quarter GDP growth of 4.5 percent, reported Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, beat the 4.4 percent consensus and improved on the second quarter's 4.3 percent — the slowest pace in three years. Domestic demand stayed soft: September retail sales rose just 1.1 percent, while manufacturing PMI edged up 0.3 points to 50.1, barely back into expansion.

"The key macroeconomic message is that China's economy is still supply- and production-side driven," Yuhan Zhang, principal economist at The Conference Board's China Center, told Reuters. "This supports near-term growth and industrial upgrading, while continued efforts to strengthen household consumption, services demand and consumer confidence would make the recovery more balanced and sustainable."

For sourcing teams, the September data confirms renewed Chinese capacity competitiveness in labor-intensive categories under the truce's lower tariff rates — a window that runs only through January 2027, when the current arrangement comes up for renewal.