Due to the debt crisis as well as the high unemployment rate in the developed countries, the global demand market still preserves a weak mood. For domestic Chinese enterprises, how to find their way to develop in the coming days during this special economic? According to Mr. SUN Ruizhe, Vice President of China National Textile and Apparel Council and Director of China Textile Information Center, the enterprises should, firstly, analyze the current industrial operational status, then find out the changes, and at last summarize the outlines and structure for their future development.  

 

On December, 16^th, China Textile Innovation Conference 2011, organized by China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), sponsored by Shandong Tian Yan Clothing Company Ltd., Tiannuo Photoelectric Ltd., HANDA, MATSUI TEX, Shaoxing Elegant Knitting Co., Ltd, Cotton Incorporated, Uster Technologies AG (Shanghai), Zhejiang TianSheng Holding Group, and Hebei Ningfang Group, was held in Beijing. More than 500 textile and apparel government officers, industrial representatives, professional experts attended this Conference.

 

Oriented with the core theme of “Changes and Structure--New Drives, New Balance, New Orientation”, on the basis of “industrial technology innovation” and “to improve industrial competitiveness with capital and brand strengths”, the speakers shared with the attendees with their prospective analysis and suggestions.

 

Mr. WANG Tiankai, president of CNTAC, expressed: “as referring to innovation, we have technology innovation, management innovation, product innovation, system innovation as well as the self-concept innovation, it is a comprehensively system. What’s more important, innovation is the essential power and strong support to drive the textile and apparel industrial development.”

 

Moreover, ZHU Hongren, Chief Engineer of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC, said: “Since China joined in the WTO, through independent innovation and structural adjustment, the textile and apparel in China has already established a complete industrial chain, ranging from the upstream fiber production, downstream product manufacture to terminal marketing sales. Besides, the added value of products technology and brand also see significantly growth, not only meet the domestic demand market, but also gain favor in overseas markets. Around the whole world, the textile and apparel industry in China has gradually witnesses a obviously development in influences and competitiveness.”

 

As one of the keynote speakers, Mr. SUN Ruizhe, Vice President of China National Textile and Apparel Council and Director of China Textile Information Center, delivered a theme report of “Changes and Structure”. Basing on the economic operational statistics in the year of 2011, this report mainly analyzed, from the aspects of market, resource and technology, the status and competition environment of the Chinese textile and apparel industry in global industrial chain. 

 

According to SUN, although the industry would cope with the serious challenges, for example, the soaring cost of production and raw material, the industrial development represent a trend: the transferring from “production capacity expansion” to “value growth”, and the correspondingly balance between industrial development and environment resource.

 

SUN said: “Changes also means opportunities. We should well utilize various kinds of drives elements, such as the market demand, the industrial superiority, technological innovation, financial capital and etc., and improve the systematically structure. Furthermore, we also should reasonably optimize regional structure as well as the product structure, create the new economic value with an innovative spirit, and create more social value with a responsible attitude. This is a necessary way to promote industrial sustainable development in China.” (The main idea would be listed in the following part.)

 

According to Fiber Organon, the fiber processing amount in China accounted for nearly 51.75% of the total around the whole world. In the year of 2010, the cotton processing amount took a proportion of 47.22% of the total, and wool took 36.22%.

 

While, the PET fiber accounted for 2/3 of the global PET fiber output, and the man-made fiber, acrylic fiber and nylon took a proportion of 60%, one third, and 40% of the total, respectively.

 

Moreover, as referring to cotton import, in the year of 2005, the import totalized 2.57 million tons, and the number reached 2.84 million tons in 2010, nearly in a stable situation. On the other hand, the MMF output saw a rapid growth during the recent two years, and the import of MMF raw material still preserve a higher level.

 

In the first three quarters, nearly 38.88% of the textile and apparel products in USA market were imported from China; however, the proportion saw a decline of 2.36 percentage points comparing with the same period time in the year of 2010.

 

In the EU market, both the textiles and the apparel products, the export witnessed a decreasing. Besides, nearly 74.71% of the apparel and textile products in the Japanese market were imported from China, decreasing by 2.45 percentage points year-on-year.

 

Whereas, in the Turkey, Indian, Pakistan, Bengal, the Chinese export represented an uptrend. Till now, USA, EU and Japan still are the top three exported destinations of Chinese textile and apparel products. Although the market share saw a decline, the total export amount was numerous.  

 

In the first ten months, the export to Mexico, ASEAN, Turkey, Korea, Africa witnessed a significantly growth, representing a trend focusing on the balance of overseas market. For Chinese textile and apparel industry, the developed countries are not the only choices of terminal export market, a balanced overseas market are more beneficial for industrial development. 

 

According to SUN, basically there are three main “Changes”: firstly, the update from “scale expansion” to “value growth”; secondly, the fluctuant raw material prices would bring more risks; thirdly, the balance between industrial development and environment resources.

In terms of the first Change, generally speaking, in the year of 2011, the uptrend of the whole textile and apparel industry is inevitable.

 

Analyzing from the aspect of market structure, domestic consumption market has gradually become the one of the new drives of industrial growth. From January to October, 2011, nearly 82.73% of the sales for the above-designated sized apparel and textile enterprises were realized in domestic markets.

 

“Value growth” is one of the drives elements for industrial development. During the tenth Five-Year-Program period, the contribution rate of value to industrial growth was 12.5%; while during the eleventh Five-Year-Program period, the proportion rose to 56.84%. This is a typical transfer of industrial growth mode, requiring us no longer relying heavy on the production factors, but meeting more tightly with the market demand.

 

In terms of the second Change, actually, fluctuant raw material price in the future would be a normal situation.

 

Cotton price would be one of the hot issues during these years. Considering about the reasons for the fluctuant cotton price, market demand and supply would be one of the main reasons. However, in fact, 30% influences from the market demand and supply, and the other 70% would come to the related policy changes as well as the influences of hot fund.

 

Recently, we would look out the “Chilling Effect”. Comparing with the cotton farmers in USA, the farmers in China are located separately, with a comparatively weak ability to confront with risks. If, in the year of 2012, the cotton planting amount could not feed the market demand, which would offer opportunities for hot money to enter, arousing a new round of cotton price sharply rebound. According to SUN, the enterprise could enlarge their cotton storage when the price at a lower price. 

 

Then, we come to the balance of industrial development and environment resources. For example, mad-made fiber is one of the most important R&D aspects; whereas, most enterprises pay more attention to the high-performance fiber, and nearly ignore the R&D of other fiber categories, so that in the coming days, the enterprises would focus on the R&D of new types of fiber, especially to develop the fiber products with large amount and more performance. As referring to the renewable natural fiber resource, the enterprises should enhance the development and research of bamboo, bast fiber and etc., and the recycle utilization of renewable man-made fiber products. Besides, the stable production and supply of cotton is of great importance, and the R&D of utilization rate of unit fiber products should also be strengthened.

 

In order to better realize the sustainable development, there are mainly three transforms: as for the macro policies, stable policy would guarantee a foundation for industrial sustainable development; as for the industry, especially aiming at environment protection, the standards should be suitable for the whole social development, social need and environment resource; an intemperate standard would cause more operational cost; and as for the enterprises, gamble is dangerous, they should make a long-term development strategy, and realize a real “value growth”.   

 

How to adjust the “Structure”? Firstly, the industry should enhance the integration of inner industrial structure, requiring the industry to speed up the transform from traditional labor-intensive mode to capital-intensive or technology-intensive mode markedly.

 

Technological innovation performs an important role during the adjustment process, which could promote the advance of manufacture, techniques and material, could improve the labor productivity, and drive the development of newly-emerged industries.

 

As for textile and apparel terminal products, there are three main categories: apparel, home textile and technical industrial textiles. In future, the industry should pay more attention to the fields of industrial textiles.

 

According to statistics, in the year of 2000, the technical industrial textile fiber processing amount only reached 1.738 million tons; however, till 2010, the amount arrived at 8.218 million tons, and it is estimated that the number would exceed 18 million tons till the end of 2020. Due to the wide range of application of industrial textiles, there are more potential opportunities for the technical industrial textile to develop in the coming days.

 

Secondly, the textile and apparel industrial structure should be more optimized. Recently, nearly 90% of the MMF and printing and dyeing industries, and more than 80% of the apparel industries are located among the east coast areas, while, for the middle and western part of China, most of them still rely more on the resource industry.

 

Industrial transfer is a trend: in the eastern area, they should turn their focuses to the modern manufacture of the terminal products; for the middle area, they should take the processing part, and for the western area, they should be good at the production of upstream products with the raw material. During the transfer process, the industry also should emphasize the integration of the industrial chain.

 

Thirdly, we should eye on the brand circulation structure. The retail sales in China would see rapid growth in the following ten years, which would provide strong support to the overall branding construction in China.

 

However, till now, for brand circulation structure, some barriers still existed: comparing with the role the department store sales channel plays, nearly all the brands rank at an inferior place; the choice of brand circulation is limited. For the textile and apparel industry, they should seek more cooperation mode with the terminal sales channels, in order to better realize their value with the consumers. Meanwhile, for the commercial channels, they also should adjust their choices and cooperation with the brands, aiming at meet the demand of the different diversified groups of consumers.