Order Grabbing Before The Festival And Closing During The Spring Festival: Why Are Knitting Enterprises So Busy?

At the beginning of the new year, knitting enterprises welcomed new help in order recovery.

With the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, a lot of good news has been coming from all over the country to help the economy recover. From the warm hearted policy of staying at home to help enterprises actively explore overseas markets, encourage production during the Spring Festival, to the many "next steps" considered by industry associations and enterprises to promote high-quality economic development throughout the year, the confidence of knitting people has been greatly boosted, It is also a good start for knitting enterprises to recover their development vitality.

Going out to sea to grab orders and expand new customers

In the past two months, foreign trade enterprises from Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan and other places have organized groups to participate in overseas exhibitions and actively compete for orders, which has been on the hot search.

Shortage of orders is the biggest pressure faced by foreign trade enterprises since the epidemic three years ago. At present, with the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, whoever can take the lead in "going global" is likely to sign an additional order.

This "going out" to meet customers, grab orders and expand the market can be described as a short time, a tight schedule and a heavy task, but it has also yielded fruitful results. Zhu Yu, manager of the foreign trade department of Zhejiang Jiaxing Yunxiang Knitting Co., Ltd., took his latest "fist" socks of more than 20 categories to participate in the AFF textile ready to wear exhibition held in Tokyo, Japan. As soon as he got off the plane, he visited 4 old customers in succession and successfully completed a series of "small goals" formulated before departure.

"Face to face communication with customers is very efficient, maintaining a number of old customers, opening up a number of new customers, and the amount of intentional orders reached on site exceeded $2 million," said Zhu Yu. The "order grabbing" of this trip further strengthened the confidence of enterprises in "going global" development. "The company will fully follow up with new customers, such as making samples and confirming samples according to customer requirements, so as to strive for further cooperation," said Zhu Yu.

In order to efficiently promote the stability and quality of foreign trade, help enterprises to win orders, and seize the new market and new opportunities in the post epidemic era, in December 2022, Jiangsu Province organized charter flights to escort enterprises to go abroad to grab orders, expand the market, and ensure their share. "At present, what we need most is orders. The government organized the exhibition to reduce the cost of enterprises, provide a lot of opportunities to contact customers, and let us win more new customer orders." Yang Hongmei, general manager of Jiangsu Nantong Dongzhi International Trade Co., Ltd. said.

MAGIC SHOW, the American International Clothing and Fabrics Exhibition, has always attracted the attention of relevant industrial enterprises at home and abroad. Dong De, Vice President of Nanchang Council for the Promotion of International Trade, introduced that in order to help foreign trade enterprises to plan overseas markets in advance and seize the opportunity of orders, Nanchang will organize Dongshen Knitting Garment Co., Ltd., Zhongtuo Garment Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Knitted and Cotton Fabric Import and Export Co., Ltd 15 professional textile and clothing export enterprises including Guoya Garment Co., Ltd. organized a group to participate in the MAGIC SHOW. "Nanchang will organize enterprises to participate in more than 30 overseas exhibitions this year, so as to continue to smooth the export channels," said Dong De.

According to the statistics of China Customs, from January to November 2022, China's total export of knitted products reached US $106.04 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.07%, and the annual export is expected to exceed US $110 billion, a record high. Industry insiders pointed out that, judging from the cumulative export of knitted clothing in recent years, the proportion of exports of both overcoats, suits, shirts and other sub categories is increasing year by year.

Lin Yunfeng, president of China Knitting Industry Association, said that with the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies and the implementation of various national policies to stabilize growth, especially the introduction of the Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2022-2035), the national economy is expected to rebound rapidly. The domestic market of the knitting industry is expected to witness rapid growth, while exports are facing downward pressure due to the contraction of external demand and the high base effect. While focusing on the main business and coping with the impact of epidemic risk, enterprises should also strengthen scientific and technological innovation, accelerate the application of digital technology, improve product added value, and seize the policy opportunity of expanding domestic demand through cost reduction and efficiency increase to achieve stable development.

"No closing" for scheduling production in Spring Festival

At present, foreign trade groups from all over the country who go abroad to participate in exhibitions, visit customers and promote cooperation have returned home in succession. Harvesting new orders and boosting the confidence of enterprises is only the first step, and more challenges are still behind the order grabbing.

Strive hard to rivet, race against the clock... In the production workshop of Suning County Mianyi Color Garment Co., Ltd., Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, workers are rushing to make the last batch of production orders for thermal underwear before the Spring Festival.

Guo Mingming, the person in charge of Mianyi Color Garment Co., Ltd., introduced that in recent years, the company has actively catered to the new market demand, developed and produced dry cotton seamless self heating thermal underwear, which uses Xinjiang high-quality long staple cotton and foreign advanced technology fabrics, and uses new technologies such as "three-dimensional weaving", "garment stitching", "traceless cutting" to produce warm underwear that is dry and skin friendly Soft and breathable, moisture absorption and warmth retention, anti pilling and other properties. Through fabric upgrading, technical transformation, product iteration, etc., the company has promoted its transformation and development.

Guangzhou Changteng Supply Chain Co., Ltd. is a foreign trade enterprise mainly engaged in garment export. In the "warm economy" boom of foreign trade since the winter of 2022, the company has exported more than 20 million yuan of clothing and apparel products such as thermal pants and knitwear, achieving a year-on-year growth of 30%.

The workers of Xinjiang Fangting Knitting Factory are also busy with the last batch of production orders before the Spring Festival recently. Zhao Ailing, the director of Fangting Knitting Factory, said that in 2022, the workshop of Fangting Company will always be in the state of full production, and all the staff in the workshop are going all out to put into production, maintaining the state of efficient operation and high execution, creating a record of nearly 400000 knitted products produced in three months.

"At the end of last year, five new products newly developed by the company went on sale, which were favored by online and offline consumers. At present, our products are in short supply," said Zhao Ailing. In recent years, with the change of market environment and consumption habits, the company has continued to increase the research and development of green, low-carbon, healthy and environment-friendly new products on the basis of the original traditional products such as cotton underwear, bamboo charcoal underwear, fast drying underwear, etc.

It is not only the orders of real gold and silver that win the order, but also the confidence of overseas customers. Near the Spring Festival, in the workshop of the famous "Children's Wear City", Zhejiang Huzhou Nantongmo Clothing Co., Ltd., workers are still busy. "We are stepping up the production of a batch of children's clothes exported to Vietnam, and according to the contract, we must deliver the goods before the Spring Festival." Yan Lierong, the head of Nantongmo Clothing Co., Ltd., said that this batch of orders is a new source of customers for him to participate in the Vietnam (Hanoi) International Children's Products Exhibition on a chartered plane by the Huzhou Municipal Government recently.

"In order to get back the orders lost in three years after the epidemic, besides going to Vietnam, we also participated in the Russian brand exhibition." Yan Lierong said that in this foreign trade "order grabbing contest", what made him more confident and confident was the government's policy to encourage enterprises to continue production during the Spring Festival.

"Try not to leave without returning home." Before the Spring Festival, many places in Zhejiang have quickly switched from "order grabbing" to "person grabbing" mode, and have introduced incentive measures to encourage enterprises to "not close" during the Spring Festival. Hangzhou, Shaoxing and other places will issue cash coupons to every employee who stays outside the province during the Spring Festival, and encourage enterprises to attract employees to spend the Spring Festival on the spot by issuing red envelopes and improving working conditions; In Yiwu, families of employees from enterprises outside the province who come here for the Spring Festival will be given digital RMB "reunion red packets"; Huzhou proposed that manufacturing enterprises above designated size whose taxable sales revenue increased by more than 10% year on year in the first quarter could get a maximum reward of 1 million yuan if they reached 25 million yuan or more.

Targeting demand to increase added value

Although "Sailing" has secured more orders, it has stabilized the production and sales of enterprises, but how to ensure that product profits are not squeezed is still a test that enterprises need to face urgently.

In recent years, health oriented "quality consumption", "self pleasing consumption" and "green sustainable consumption" have gradually become fashionable. Many knitting enterprises are also grasping the consumption preference of consumers of different ages for different knitting products, trying to increase the added value of products and resolve the bottleneck of enterprise development.

"The market demand for green consumption has promoted the continuous development of China's knitting industry. Knitted products have also expanded from traditional cotton sweaters, pants and other categories, and the product categories have been enriched, and the product comfort has also been significantly improved. Knitting woven, functional and green sustainability will become the three directions of future research and development of knitted fabrics." Li Hong, Deputy Secretary General of China Knitting Industry Association and Director of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said recently at the "Light of Textile" Knitting Product Innovation Seminar.

Li Hong introduced that knitted products have good air permeability, excellent elasticity and extensibility, and are more suitable for the fast-paced and multi scene changing dress needs of urban elites, so that the same garment has more functions, can meet people's needs for fashion, beauty, personalization, intelligence and other compatibility, and is also an important research and development trend of knitted products in the future.

Ou Bolian, director of the supply chain management center of Shenzhen Golith Garments Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Golith), said that in the past two years, with the rise of sustainable fashion, the company's practice in green and environmental protection has continued to deepen, and the use of environmentally friendly fabrics has continued to increase. For example, wool knitted fabrics are used in autumn and winter suits and suits. In the future, more high-quality, environmentally friendly and functional sustainable fabrics will be used. As for the R&D needs of women's wear brands for knitted fabrics, Ou Bolian believes that in the future, the R&D of knitted fabrics needs to solve the problems of shrinkage, deformation and pilling, and innovate in the direction of knitting, versatility and green sustainability.

　　 "As far as the current market situation is concerned, it is not enough for brands to only focus on the use of green fiber. They should also consider the selection of fiber raw materials, product preparation, logistics, sales, recycling and other aspects comprehensively to make the entire production process develop in the direction of low energy consumption, low pollution, and low emissions. To judge whether a product is green, we can not just see how many green fibers it uses, It depends on whether it integrates the concept of green sustainability into every link of production. " Li Hong said.

Under the opportunity of "double carbon", Zhejiang Jiaming Holding Co., Ltd. has continuously improved its production technology, and the enterprise has achieved prosperity in production and sales. "Many brands have announced the goal of carbon neutrality. For example, Aime has launched the zero carbon plan since 2021, Peacebird plans to achieve the goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2046, and many international brands promise to use more recycled materials. Upstream research and development enterprises should also pay attention to the green practices of these brands and actively cooperate with clothing brands to strive for sustainable development." Said Mo Donghai, general manager of Zhejiang Jiaming Holding Co., Ltd.

Yancheng Fuhui Textile Co., Ltd. has been transforming to high-quality featured knitting product research and development since 2017, from high count and high-density woven like fabric, air layer, pile fabric and other featured knitting products to white graphene yarn that has broken through the color limit, as well as biodegradable and environmentally friendly gramin antibacterial fiber. Yu Jianming, assistant to the general manager of Yancheng Fuhui Textile Co., Ltd., said, "It is difficult for us to judge whether these R&D achievements can become popular products, but we can better meet customer needs only by continuing research and development based on new raw materials, new technologies, and some judgments about new trends in the market, and at the same time enhancing the ability to provide full process technical services."