South Korea’s textile exports continued to drop in 2010 with its global market share also stepping down four notches since 2000, a local industry group said Sunday.

According to a report from the Korea Federation of Textile Industries, the country shipped $12.6 billion worth of textile products, including clothes, in 2010, compared with $17.7 billion worth of products exported in 2000.

The country’s global market share in the industry also dropped to 2.1 percent, the world’s eighth-largest, in 2010 from the world’s fourth-largest of 5 percent 10 years earlier.

The report attributed the drop in the country’s market share to growing competition from newly emerging countries, especially China, whose textile exports reached $242.5 billion in 2010, accounting for 40.3 percent of global trade.

The textile federation earlier said the country’s exports in 2011 were expected to reach $16 billion.

“Textile exports will continue to show positive growth in 2012, but the growth rate will likely slow down amid concerns over a global economic downturn,” it said. 

(Yonhap News)