ITALIAN apparel fabrics manufacturers, the world's biggest suppliers of high-end fabrics, said they have plans to expand investment in China, a market with a huge potential in the future.

Italy, which firmly rejected inexpensive Chinese textile goods in the last round of trade dispute, is hoping to sell more fabrics to China to offset losses in its home market.

That's the message from the ongoing Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics 2005, a leading industry fair which ends tomorrow.

Leggiuno SpA, a major Italian shirting fabrics provider, said it plans to establish a representative office in Shanghai next year to help expand its exports to China.

"China's dynamic economic growth is creating more demand for high-quality fabrics," said Lorenzo Leva, a manager with Leggiuno.

"Although our current exports to China are small, we hope the new Shanghai office will help us explore the fast-growing market," he added.

China only bought 2 percent of the company's 5 million meters of annual production.

He expects the percentage will soar after landing customers like the Jiangyin-based Heilan Group and the Renoma brand from FIRS Corp.

Emrico Barboni, a sales and marketing official with REDA, a suit fabrics maker, said Chinese sales are growing fast since the firm set up an office in Shanghai three years ago.

"We will further invest to improve the visibility of the company and take care of Chinese taste for fabrics," he said. "China is the market for the future, we have to prepare for the opportunities."

China now buys 10 percent of the total Italian fabrics exported and the proportion is growing by an annual 2 to 3 percentage points, said Alessandro Liberatori, with the textile division of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, which had a 54-member pavilion at the show.

Italian fabrics exports to China jumped 30.6 percent last year to 6.2 billion euros (US$7.5 billion), according to the institute.

Shanghai Daily