China's textile industry continued to develop rapidly in 2006, with the main indexes such as sales income, profit and export volume all setting new records. It is the best period of development for China's textile industry, said Du Yuzhou, president of China's National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) at the second annual China Textile Round Table Forum held in Beijing on January 30.

According to statistics, sales from China's textile industry reached 2.4498 trillion yuan in 2006, up 16.8 percent; total profit amounted to 88.3 billion yuan, up 27.96 percent; and export value reached 147 billion yuan, up 25 percent. The price of products exported to Europe and America ceased to slide in 2003 and has been increasing ever since, growing 10 percent in 2006.

In many areas, especially in coastal regions, the textile industry is no longer in decline, and has in fact become a pillar industry.