Beijing’s heightened trade tensions with the United States are prohibiting local firms from shifting any production offshore, so Chinese fast fashion giant, SHEIN is messing with its global sourcing arrangement with Reliance Retail. According to reports, SHEIN’s ambitious plan to establish India as a regional manufacturing hub for its worldwide operations may be scaled back.
Due to border tensions with China and India, SHEIN was banned for five years before returning to the Indian Market in February 2025. The goal of the collaboration with Reliance Retail Ventures was to go beyond retail, particularly by establishing an ‘export platform’ for Indian MSMEs (micro, small, and medium-sized businesses) engaged in the production of clothing and textiles. As part of the agreement, SHEIN would suspend its current technology and expertise agreements with Reliance and include 25,000 MSMEs in its global supply chain. But the plans described above are now in doubt.
The SHEIN-Reliance agreement was renegotiated during a period of tremendous expansion for the fast fashion sector in India. Redseer Strategy Consultants predicts that this sector would increase significantly from US $ 10 billion in FY24 to US $ 50 billion by FY31, mostly due to shifting consumer behaviour and digital-first businesses.
As the company has persevered through the tariff war, SHEIN continues to be a formidable player in the global fashion market, in addition to its utilisation and bargaining strength. SHEIN has 250 million social media followers and operates in more than 150 countries.
