European 2014 apparel production continues fall, while imports grow

Apparel production in the EU fell 1.2% during 2014 compared to 2013, EU data released on February 12 shows, while the latest available data shows apparel imports grew 3.9%. The EU’s textile production grew 2.5%.

Apparel production has grown reasonably consistently over the past three or four years in Portugal, Poland and Romania, as well as in Turkey. It has been flat in most other major EU producing countries, and has shown consistent decline in Spain in spite of apparently growing Spanish apparel exports.

Clothesource Tradetrak compares:

• For production: the EU’s monthly release of the cash value of apparel production, deflated by apparel wholesale inflation
• For imports: apparel imports from outside the EU, in square metres of fabric

It shows the long term decline in apparel production slowing in 2014, but still falling: the decline in textile production seems to have stopped around 2009, and might be reversing:

The EU reports similar data for Turkey and other non-EU European countries west of Ukraine and Belarus.  The total number of apparel and textile workers in these countries at quarter 3 2014 (latest data published) came to 3.4 million

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Among the major centres, apparel production in Turkey has now been growing for the past four years:

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And textile production generally showed more consistent growth across the region

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