The well-documented deceleration in total Chinese fabric production witnessed over the last two years and most recently described here is weighing on growth in its largest component, cotton fabric. After expanding by at least 20% each of the previous four years, cotton cloth production over the first five months of 2008 is up a modest 6.6% from the same period last year.

    Even in this period of slower growth, Shandong province continues to be the engine behind the expansion of Chinese cotton yarn production. Over the first five months, Shandong output climbed 13.6% from the same period last year, implying the region now accounts for a larger share of provincial cotton yarn output. Similarly, production in Hubei province outpaced growth in the rest of the country, climbing 20.8% in 2008 from a year earlier. These two larger provinces now capture a record share of cotton yarn production in China, higher each of the last five years. While in 2003/04 hardly one-third of total volume was in these two provinces, now fully 44% of total Chinese cotton yarn production occurs in these two regions.