New figures have showed that China'stextile and garment exports slowed drastically in the first fourthmonths of this year as domestic companies worry about decreases intheir market share overseas and inadequate support from consumptionat home.

The export value of textile and garments in the Jan.-Aprilperiod stood at 71 billion U.S. dollars, just 1.07 percent higherthan a year ago, according to data released on Thursday by theChina National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC).

The growth rate witnessed a sharp decline from the 27.05-percentrise registered in the first fourth months in 2011, judging bycustoms data.

Breaking the market down, exports of textile products grew only0.15 percent to 30.73 billion U.S. dollars, while garment exportsincreased 1.77 percent to 40.27 billion U.S. dollars, the CNTACdata showed.

"The slowing exports were directly caused by higher domesticcotton prices," said CNTAC spokesman Sun Huaibin. The domesticprice of 328-type cotton stood at 18,853 yuan (about 2,974 U.S.dollars) per tonne as of May 25, 5,460 yuan higher than its pricein international markets.

The continuing price gap has weakened the competence of thedomestic textile industry, Sun said, adding the nation's textileexports will face an even worse situation if the gap fails tonarrow in future.

The spokesman said the disparity has also led to reduced marketshares of Chinese textile and garment exports.

Along with rising labor costs at home in recent years, Chinesetextile and garment products in major markets such as the UnitedStates and Japan fell to 35.58 percent and 72.03 percent,respectively, in the first quarter of 2012, down 4.55 and 2.92percentage points year on year, Sun noted.

Meanwhile, according to the CNTAC data, China's textile exportsto its third-largest trading partner, the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations, grew only 2.69 percent in the Jan.-April period,representing a drastic fall of 59.66 percentage points year onyear.

The data also showed textile and garment imports by the UnitedStates, the EU and Japan dropped 6.55 percent in the first quarter,which added to the worries of Zhong Daguang, general manager of agarment company based in southern China's Guangdong province, whosaid his company has been getting fewer orders since the start ofthe year.

Li Jincai, president of the China Textile Construction andPlanning Institute, said obstacles in foreign trade and lacklusterdomestic consumption are both having an impact on the status of thecountry's textile and garment industry, which supplied 32.71percent of total exports worldwide in 2010.

At home, the situation is no less worrying. The CNTAC datashowed the sales revenues of 36,700 surveyed textile companies hit1,677 billion yuan in the first four months, up 13.11 percent;however, the growth rate plunged 17.43 percentage points year onyear.

Slowing growth in both exports and domestic sales revenuesslashed the first-quarter profits of the surveyed companies to 53.7billion yuan, down 1.77 percent year on year, the data suggested.Enditem