Imports of cotton dip as textiles struggle

Cotton imports slid 44.9 percent year-on-year to 161,200 metric tons in January, highlighting the challenges that domestic textile manufacturers face in a weak world market, said trade experts.

He Jingtong, a professor of international trade at Nankai University in Tianjin, said that slack global market conditions have hit China's labor-intensive industries, especially garment and textile production, as well as shoes, toys and furniture.

All these exports slumped in January, underscoring the nation's fast-fading advantage in some of the sectors it once dominated.