This year marks the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan and the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan for the textile industry. It is also the mid-term assessment year proposed by the textile industry to achieve the goal of "textile power" by 2020. In the new situation of slowing down the overall growth rate of the industry and turning into single-digit growth, how can the textile industry exert its strength in the middle and high end and accelerate the pace towards a strong textile country?
Recently, the reporter of Economic Daily followed the Zhejiang Research Group of China Textile Industry Federation to visit many textile enterprises and industrial clusters in Tongxiang, Haining, Zhuji, Yiwu and other regions where the textile industry started early and developed rapidly and the task of transformation and upgrading was urgent.
Rapid Rise of Industrial Textiles
"Few of our products can be made in China, and the international market competitiveness is very strong. The price is more expensive than that of similar products abroad." Gao Wang Wei, general manager of Zhejiang Hailide New Materials Co., Ltd., introduced Gao Yong, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation.
Hailide is one of the largest polyester industrial filament manufacturers in China. Its high-quality polyester industrial filament is mainly used in the fields of tyres, seat belts, airbags and other automotive fibers. Hailide has developed rapidly in recent years, thanks to its accurate market positioning and firm and clear development ideas.
"We specialize in the high-end market and are fixed suppliers of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other international first-line automobile brands. Last year, we sold 2.3 billion yuan." Gao Wang Wei told reporters that Haili had made conventional products before, but found that the homogenization of the low-end market competition is serious, so they timely adjusted the product direction, instead of only doing high-end. Hailide believes that although the high-end market has large investment and high threshold, it has high quality requirements, high value-added products and stable customers. Today, Hailide's products have absolute pricing power in the international market.
The development of industrial textiles is an important step for the textile industry to reach the middle and high end. With the progress of science and technology, industrial textiles are gradually replacing steel, aluminium alloy and other materials, and their functions are becoming stronger and stronger, and their application fields are expanding. At the same time, due to the high technical content of industrial textiles, the added value of products is also high. Therefore, industrial textiles are defined as the new growth point of textile industry in China, and also the main direction of current textile industry restructuring and upgrading.
Statistics show that, in the context of the slowdown and adjustment of the textile industry last year, the added value of textile industry of above-scale industries in China increased by 11.7% year-on-year, which is higher than the growth rate of the whole textile industry by 4.7 percentage points; the total profit increased by 13.8% year-on-year, which is higher than the growth rate of the whole industry by 7.7 percentage points.
"Machine Replacement" to Achieve Comprehensive Upgrade
In the production workshop of Xinfengming Group, white silk cakes rotate neatly and rapidly on rows of machines. Robots move packaging quickly and agilely.
Xinfengming is the representative of the leading enterprises in China's chemical fibre industry. Its spinning capacity ranks among the top three in the industry. "We can maintain such benefits, mainly through continuous investment, improvement of existing equipment, especially the implementation of machine replacement projects, so that operating costs continue to decline." Zhuangkuilong, chairman of Xinfengming Group, said that the effect of machine replacement is obvious, which greatly improves the production efficiency and quality, and also increases the income of employees and the level of enterprise management.
As a traditional labor-intensive manufacturing industry, in recent years, the problem of employment difficulty in textile enterprises has become more and more serious, and the cost of employment has become higher and higher. In order to cope with this situation, many enterprises began to adopt robots. "Although the original intention is to change people, it is actually one of the important means for textile enterprises and industries to achieve structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading. The role it brings is comprehensive and multi-faceted, because the upgrading of textile industrial structure is achieved through technological progress and the improvement of labor quality." Gao Yong said that it is an inevitable trend for the textile industry to change people for machines. In the next five to 10 years, this demand trend will become more obvious.
"One place, one product" to upgrade industrial clusters
"Last year, we demolished more than 4 million square meters of illegal factory buildings, forcing everyone to change the"family factory"model, and promoting the upgrading of home textile industry from family-style to park-style." Zhu Weiqiang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xucun Town, Haining City, Zhejiang Province, said.
Xucun, Haining, is an important home textile industry cluster in China. For a long time, it has maintained the production mode of "home factory". Since last year, the Haining Municipal Committee and Municipal Government have made great efforts to rectify and dismantle these illegal production houses.
In Zhu Weiqiang's view, accelerating the use of high-tech and advanced applicable technology to transform the home textile industry and accelerating the upgrading of industrial clusters is the only way to strengthen and expand the home textile industry in many villages.
Coincidentally, as the home of Chinese socks industry, Zhejiang Zhuji Datang is making every effort to promote its brand strategy. "Relevant departments have launched a number of initiatives to implement the transformation project, the goal is to promote Datang socks industry to better enter the international market at the same time, guide enterprises to create well-known brands, to achieve the upgrading of Datang socks industry." Yang Yungui, Zhuji Economic and Credit Bureau, said.
The industrial cluster characterized by "one place, one product" is the important foundation of China's textile industry and plays an important role in China's becoming a major textile manufacturing country. At present, the total economic volume of textile industry cluster accounts for more than 40% of the total economic volume of the whole industry. Under the new situation of weak demand and fluctuation of raw material price, relying on industrial cluster to build brand and expand market