Seeking Development Through Specialization And Differentiation, Cotton Textile Research Travel Across The Country Entered Hubei

　　 On August 18-21, the research team of "Jinlun · 2024 Cotton Textile Industry High Quality Development Research National Tour" came to Hubei. Dong Kuiyong, President of China Cotton Textile Industry Association, Jing Shenquan, Vice President, Huang Hongbing, General Manager of Jinlun Knitting (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., and Sun Wu, Vice General Manager, visited cotton textile enterprises in Jingzhou, Xiaogan, Wuhan, and Xiangyang to learn about their production and operation, exchange experience, and explore high-quality development paths of the industry.

　　 General situation of spinning in Hubei

　　 As a traditional competitive industry, Hubei cotton textile industry has a long history, a solid foundation and distinctive characteristics. Its yarn and cloth production ranks among the top in all provinces and cities in China, and has formed characteristics and advantages in cotton and linen blended yarn, sewing thread, cotton yarn (characteristic denim yarn, cotton differential yarn) and other cotton textile fields. Among them, the cotton and linen blended yarn is mainly produced in Xianning, the sewing line in Hanchuan has the largest production capacity, and the cotton yarn enterprises are concentrated in Zaoyang.

Hanchuan has a spinning capacity of about 3 million spindles, mainly in Makou Town. Two thirds of the production capacity produces sewing thread products, which accounts for more than half of the national output, and the rest of the production capacity is mainly polyester yarn. This survey visited Hubei Mingren Textile Group and Jihua 3509 Textile Co., Ltd. located in Hanchuan City.

In the past, Zaoyang was a well-known cotton producing county in China, which provided a foundation for the development of local cotton textile industry. At present, Zaoyang has formed a spinning scale of more than 1 million spindles, becoming a local pillar industry. With the continuous change of the market, the local cotton spinning enterprises have changed from producing conventional pure cotton yarn products to producing various cotton blended products. The size of enterprises is generally small. Zaoyang Wantong Cotton Textile Industrial Co., Ltd. is the largest textile enterprise in the region, with a capacity of nearly 200000 spindles; The rest are mostly small and refined enterprises with 50000 to 100000 ingots. The research team had in-depth exchanges with Zaoyang Wantong Cotton Textile Industry Co., Ltd., Zaoyang Jishun Textile Co., Ltd., Zaoyang Siyuan Spinning Co., Ltd. and the local government.

In addition, the research team also visited Hubei Deyongsheng Textile Co., Ltd., a featured denim yarn enterprise, Hubei Jin'an Textile Group Co., Ltd., Hubei Xiaomian Industrial Group Co., Ltd., and Wuhan Yudahua Textile and Garment Group Co., Ltd., the leading cotton textile enterprises in Hubei Province.

Firm confidence and move forward under pressure

　　 The visited enterprises said that the cotton spinning products in Hubei and Xinjiang are seriously homogeneous, but the electric charge of Hubei enterprises is more than 0.7 yuan/kilowatt hour, and the production cost is high. The cost of Xinjiang pure cotton yarn is far lower than that of Hubei spinning enterprises. In the conventional pure cotton yarn market, Hubei spinning enterprises have basically no profit to speak of, and the operating pressure is huge. The enterprise appeals to the national government departments to maintain the steady and healthy development of the domestic textile market, effectively help enterprises reduce production costs, and take into account the overall domestic situation in terms of policies and subsidies.

In order to avoid the homogeneous competition with Xinjiang enterprises and ensure the normal operation of enterprises, visiting enterprises began to actively save themselves, deeply explore the subdivisions, increase product varieties, and strive to create enterprise product features and brands. New products are mainly concentrated in pure cotton yarn, slub yarn, cotton hemp blended yarn, medium and high count compact spinning, high proportion yarn and other fields that are less impacted by Xinjiang pure cotton yarn. After spinning, the product sales and enterprise operation have improved. However, under the current market downturn, the profits of enterprises are meagre, and some enterprises can only ensure the balance of profits and losses.

In terms of equipment update, there is a big gap between the overall level of equipment in the visited areas and the domestic advanced production lines. In recent years, a few enterprises have upgraded the automation equipment for the whole process of coarse and fine networking, and the capacity of new equipment is about 100000 ingots, which effectively reduces the labor intensity of workers and ensures the stability of products. Most enterprises adopt the strategy of jogging in small steps and carry out appropriate technical transformation every year. The enterprise said that the equipment renovation and reconstruction is mainly based on its own funds. Affected by the market, the established investment plan to ensure cash flow has been postponed, and most enterprises are currently confused.

In terms of raw material use, cotton is still the main raw material for production in Hubei, mainly Xinjiang cotton. The price of cotton used by enterprises is deeply bound to the price of futures, and the irrational fluctuation of price increases. The enterprises are lack of corresponding professionals, and have poor control over the price of raw materials, which increases the business risk. Enterprises hope that financial instruments can effectively help enterprises avoid commodity price fluctuations, enable the industry to have a stable price system as a support, and enable enterprises to devote more energy to improving their core competitiveness such as product quality.

Due to the large export proportion of enterprises' downstream customers, the traceability of raw materials has increased recently. In order to ensure smooth export orders and effectively reduce the cost of cotton production, the visiting enterprises hope that the quota policy of imported cotton can be adjusted to favor enterprises with large cotton consumption and export demand.

In view of the fact that Hubei is dominated by small and medium-sized textile enterprises, Dong Kuiyong said that in the future, enterprises should actively open up new tracks, deeply specialize in subdivisions, establish their own characteristics, maintain their own advantages and stable customer sources, and carry out differentiated development with large-scale enterprises and "finance+" enterprises.

Huang Hongbing, general manager of Jinlun Card Clothing (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., said that through interviews and research, Jinlun Card Clothing will continue to strengthen service, adhere to customer demand orientation, adhere to innovation, focus on solving customers' pain points in complex application scenarios, provide customers with feasible solutions, and contribute to the high-quality development of the cotton textile industry.

(Source: China Cotton Association)