Jiang Manxia, Zhang Yulan and Sun Jing07.07.11
In 2010, amidst complex economic and social development, a variety of natural calamities and severe challenges, the Chinese government put together a package plan to cope with the impact of the global financial crisis and accelerate the change of economic development in the country. This has helped China's economy to continue steady and relatively rapid growth—the gross domestic product (GDP) reached 39,800 billion yuan, up 10.3% from 2009. Meanwhile, domestic demand continued to increase—total retail sales of social consumer goods in China increased 18.3% to 15,699.8 billion yuan or 14.8% when adjusted for inflation.
In 2009, influenced by the financial crisis, there appeared a slight decline in products exported from China's hygiene products manufacturers whose main business is foreign trade converting. These manufacturers started to recover in 2010. Meanwhile, the domestic market kept increasing as did the consumption of various hygiene products compared to year 2009. This was especially true for baby diapers and adult incontinence products. In 2010, the market size (total market sales revenue) of absorbable hygiene products was about 62.84 billion yuan, up 14.3% than 2009. Among them, sanitary napkins/panty liners accounted for 65.5%, baby diapers accounted for 29.4%, adult incontinence items accounted for 1.9% and wet wipes accounted for 3.2%.
* This article is the first in a series of articles tracking different segments of the Chinese hygiene market which are taken from a report put together by the Chinese National Household Paper Industry Association (CNHPIA). For more information: 2004ads@sina.com; www.cnhpia.org.