Market evolution: Special knitted garments (CN 6114) — 2015–2025

Introduction

CN 6114 covers special garments for professional, sporting or other purposes, knitted or crocheted — a residual category within Chapter 61 that bundles items not classified elsewhere, such as workwear overalls, uniforms, protective knitwear, and sports-specific garments. The code is itself a bundling heading that aggregates three sub-categories: cotton (611420), man-made fibres (611430), and other textile materials (611490). Over the 2015–2025 period, the EU's trade profile in this product has undergone a dramatic transformation: the bloc shifted from being a net exporter to a substantial net importer, export volumes nearly halved, and the geographic composition of both imports and exports was reshaped by Brexit, pandemic disruptions, and a broader reorientation of global textile supply chains. This report examines the data in the general overview and related sections to identify and explain these dynamics.

1. A structural reversal: from trade surplus to deep import dependence

The EU swung from a €122 million surplus to a €424 million deficit

In 2015 the EU recorded exports of €840 million against imports of €719 million, yielding a positive trade balance of approximately €122 million. By 2025, exports had fallen to €699 million while imports surged to €1,123 million, producing a deficit of roughly €424 million. This swing of over €545 million marks one of the most striking structural shifts observable in the general trade overview.

Net import reliance moved from −31% to +74%

The net import reliance indicator quantifies this transformation starkly: the EU moved from a position where exports exceeded imports by 31% of total trade (−30.8 in 2015) to one where net imports account for 74.4% of apparent consumption by 2025. The deepest export surplus was recorded in 2020 (−81.0), when pandemic lockdowns suppressed import flows more than exports, but this was a temporary anomaly rather than a trend reversal.

Export volumes fell far faster than export values, signalling a pricing-up strategy

EU exporters shed nearly 38% of their tonnage but recouped much of that loss through higher unit prices (+34%), suggesting a move toward higher-value, niche, or technically sophisticated garments. Importers, by contrast, grew both volume and price, indicating broad-based demand expansion.

EU domestic production declined in volume but rose in value

Production data confirms the domestic squeeze: total EU production fell from 6.4 million kg to 5.3 million kg (−18%), while production value edged up from €115 million to €129 million (+12%). This mirrors the export pattern — fewer physical units, higher average prices — and points to an EU industry that is retreating from volume competition but retaining footholds in premium segments.

2. Geographic realignment: Asia consolidates, intra-European links erode

China remained the dominant supplier but Bangladesh and Türkiye gained the most ground

The partner breakdown reveals that China's share of EU imports grew from €285 million to €403 million (+41%). However, the fastest-growing suppliers were:

Bangladesh and Türkiye each more than doubled their shipments to the EU, reflecting the broader "China plus one" sourcing diversification strategy adopted by European importers seeking to reduce single-country dependence. Morocco's tripling likely reflects nearshoring dynamics and preferential access under the EU–Morocco Association Agreement.

The United Kingdom collapsed as both an import source and an export destination

The UK's post-Brexit trajectory is dramatic across both flows:

• EU imports from the UK fell from €61.4 million to €22.2 million (−63.9%), with a coefficient of variation of 0.91 — the highest among major import partners, indicating extreme year-to-year instability during the transition.
• EU exports to the UK fell from a peak of €130.3 million to €65.5 million, roughly halving.

This pattern is consistent with the introduction of customs formalities, rules-of-origin documentation requirements, and regulatory divergence that made bilateral flows more costly and unpredictable after January 2021.

Hong Kong's collapse reshaped the EU export landscape

The steepest export-side decline was to Hong Kong, which fell from €157 million (2015, and a peak of €166 million) to just €35 million by 2025 (−77.5%). Hong Kong had historically served as an entrepôt and re-export hub for Asian distribution; the decline may reflect a combination of China's tightening control over Hong Kong, the redirection of trade through mainland Chinese ports, and geopolitical uncertainty dampening commercial ties.

The United States and Switzerland became the EU's anchor export markets

Against the backdrop of shrinking Asian and UK outlets, the US and Switzerland emerged as the most resilient export partners:

The US gain is particularly noteworthy and may reflect the growing demand for technical and performance sportswear, a segment where European brands maintain strong positioning.

Within the EU, Spain emerged as the bloc's import gateway while Italy and France lost export dominance

The member-state reporter data reveals a profound internal redistribution:

Spain more than tripled its imports, becoming the EU's largest single importer by 2025 (overtaking Germany), consistent with Spain's role as a major fast-fashion distribution hub (Inditex and others). Meanwhile, Italy and France — traditionally the EU's premium garment exporters — saw their export values roughly halved, while Poland surged from under €5 million to nearly €43 million, reflecting the rise of Central European contract manufacturing.

The most specialised exporters in 2025 were Spain, Bulgaria, and Poland

According to revealed symmetric comparative advantage data, Spain (RSCA 0.50), Bulgaria (0.46), and Poland (0.40) led in export specialisation for CN 6114 in 2025. At the other end, Malta, Ireland, Finland, and Hungary showed negative RSCA values, indicating they are net importers with no meaningful competitive position in this product.

3. Price dynamics and supply-chain volatility reveal structural tensions

Unit export prices diverged sharply by sub-category

The product segment breakdown reveals very different price trajectories across the three sub-categories:

Export unit prices (€/t):

Man-made fibre garments saw their export unit price more than double, rising from €23,374/t to €47,302/t. This is the most striking sub-category price evolution and likely reflects a shift from commodity polyester workwear toward high-performance synthetic fabrics used in sportswear, outdoor wear, and technical protective garments. By contrast, cotton and other-material garments showed only modest price increases, suggesting more commoditised market segments.

Import unit prices (€/t):

Import prices rose more moderately, indicating that the EU's sourcing countries are supplying at lower price points — the gap between the EU's export and import unit prices widened substantially, especially for man-made-fibre garments where the export/import price ratio roughly doubled from 1.1× to 2.0×.

Man-made fibre garments dominate both import and export volumes

Across the entire period, 611430 (man-made fibres) accounted for the largest share of both flows:

• Imports: 611430 grew from 22,678 t to 34,582 t (+52%) and reached a peak of 41,097 t in 2022, representing roughly 60–75% of total import volume.
• Exports: 611430 declined from 11,775 t to 6,302 t (−46%), though it remained the largest export sub-category.

Cotton garments (611420) saw the most volatile export trajectory, surging from 1,612 t to a peak of 7,226 t in 2022 before collapsing back to 2,223 t — a boom-and-bust pattern likely tied to the post-pandemic supply-chain reconfiguration and cotton price spikes of 2021–2022.

Pandemic and post-pandemic years introduced significant volatility

The supply shock analysis detected notable price shocks:

• Bangladesh (2022, imports): An abnormality score of 80.6 and a 22.4% unit-price shift, coinciding with the post-COVID raw-material cost surge and the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Given Bangladesh's 19.7% share of import value, this shock had material downstream effects.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (2017, exports): A 102% export unit-price jump with a 219 abnormality score, though at a small value share (0.4%), suggesting a one-off deal or shipment reclassification rather than a structural trend.
• India (2021, exports): A 263% unit-price surge on EU exports to India, again with minimal value share (0.3%).

Beyond these detected shocks, the pandemic year of 2020 is visible across virtually all series: import volumes dipped to 43,086 t (from 50,343 t in 2019), and export volumes fell to 20,360 t (from 24,346 t), before both partially recovered.

Import concentration remained moderate and edged down, while export concentration stayed low

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for import value fell from 1,983 to 1,892 (−4.6%), remaining in the moderately concentrated range (1,500–2,500). For exports, the HHI stayed low at around 823, indicating a well-diversified destination portfolio despite the loss of Hong Kong as a major outlet. In volume terms, however, export concentration fell sharply (HHI from 693 to 369, −47%), suggesting that remaining export volumes became more evenly spread across smaller destinations.

Conclusion

Over the decade 2015–2025, the EU's trade in CN 6114 was defined by three converging dynamics: a deepening structural dependence on imports, a geographic realignment away from traditional European partners toward Asian and nearshore suppliers, and a pronounced shift toward higher unit values in remaining EU production and exports. The EU moved from a net exporter position to a substantial net importer, with imports rising 56% in value while exports fell 17%. This was not simply a volume story — EU exporters actively repriced upward, more than doubling unit prices in the man-made-fibre sub-segment, while domestic production volumes declined but values held. The geographic reshuffling was equally consequential: Brexit effectively severed the UK as a meaningful bilateral partner, Hong Kong's role as an export hub evaporated, and Bangladesh, Türkiye, and Morocco absorbed growing shares of EU import demand. Within the EU, Spain consolidated its position as the primary import gateway, while Poland emerged as a competitive new exporter alongside the traditional Italian and French bases that nevertheless contracted. Looking ahead, the EU's 74% net import reliance in this product category represents both a consumer welfare benefit through access to lower-cost production and a strategic vulnerability that policymakers may wish to monitor, particularly given the concentration of import supply in a handful of Asian origins and the continued erosion of the EU's own manufacturing base in volume terms.