China’s leather trade continued to expand throughout January-February 2003, with imports totalling $550 million and exports $2.08 billion.

Exports of all kinds of leather-related items including hides, finished leather, footwear, garments and other finished goods totalled $2.08 billion – a 22.3% rise on the year before.  Collectively, they accounted for 3.8% of the value of China’s total exports.

Of the total export figure, the fastest growth was seen in the export of leather garments. These reached $240 million, a massive 50.8% leap on the year previous. The next biggest rise (+35.2%) was seen in leather gloves, to $170 million, followed by leather shoes (+21.4% to $770 million), fur garments (+16.2% to $13 million), semi- and finished leather (+15.9% to $120 million). However, hide exports were down 17% to $1 million. 

The largest 10 export destinations for raw materials and leather by value and excluding fur were Hong Kong (accounting for 54.7% of the total), South Korea (11.0%), Italy (7.8%), Taiwan (5.8%), Spain (4.9%), the United States (2.9%), Vietnam (1.9%), Singapore (1.6%), Thailand (1.6%) and Indonesia (1.2%).

Imports of leather and leather-related goods totalled $550 million – a 33.5 % rise on the year before, accounting for 1% of China’s total imports by value. Reflecting the east coast consumer’s growing appetite for luxury goods, fur garment imports were up by a phenomenal 736.4% to $100,000 by value, leather garments by +232.5% to $520,000, raw hides excluding fur by +35.8% to $120 million and semi- and finished leather by +36.7% to $360 million.

The five countries and regions with the highest value of exports to China were the United States (accounting for 16.5% of the total by value), Taiwan (16.3%), followed by South Korea (15.6%), Italy(8.3%) and Australia (7.3%).

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