(Yicai Global) Oct. 14 -- The fact that India has lost a lot of its foreign textile orders to China due to its factories' inability to deliver on time as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupts production is normal market behavior, a Ministry of Commerce official told the press today.

It is normal market behavior for multinational corporations to adjust their global orders and for international purchasers to choose suppliers according to their production capacity, said Li Xiaoqian, director of MOFCOM’s department of foreign trade.

Customers will always compare different sellers’ prices when buying items and select those products that are high-quality, cost-efficient and reliable. Foreign trade works in the same way, he added. Some areas of China will also transfer orders to other nations and markets.

China, which is the world’s top textile producer and exporter, has gone through the same test, Li said. The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the global economy, severely influencing both supply and demand and blocking industrial supply chains.

China hopes that India can curb the spread of the disease as soon as possible and restore normal production, he added.

Despite the pandemic hammering the world economy, China smashed its international trade records in the third quarter, with both exports and imports reaching record highs. Exports jumped 10.2 percent to CNY5 trillion (USD741 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs yesterday. Imports rose 4.3 percent to CNY3.88 trillion.

In the nine months through Sept. 30, the combined value of China’s exports and imports came to CNY23 trillion (USD3.4 trillion) in the first positive collective growth this year. Cargo exports rose 1.8 percent to CNY12.71 trillion, while imports fell 0.6 percent to CNY10.41 trillion.

Editor: Kim Taylor