By Xinhua
Beijing : Rising costs and an appreciation of the yuan have forced nearly half of the Chinese textile firms to close down, according to a study.
Around 49.2 percent of the units surveyed by China Cotton Textile Association in 17 provinces said they wanted to quit and restart other businesses.
About 27.3 percent said the appreciation of yuan have affected their business, while 44.4 percent of those units surveyed restarted selling some export-oriented products on the domestic market.
The appreciation of yuan, lowering of tax rebates and inflation forced diversion of investment from cotton textile to realty sector, equity market and other businesses, the survey said.
The average profit margin in textiles sector went down to 0.62 percent as against 3.9 percent last year, according to another survey by China National and Apparel Council.