China Chemical Fiber Industry Association: Firming Confidence, Seeking Progress In Stability, Accelerating The Construction Of Chemical Fiber Modernization Industry System

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was successfully held, which opened a new journey of Chinese style modernization. The 2023 government work report clearly proposed to "accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system", which pointed out the target direction for the textile chemical fiber industry to further promote high-quality development. The Sixth United Party Branch of the China Textile Industry Federation closely followed the overall deployment requirements of Xi Jinping's education on the theme of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, and on the basis of careful theoretical study, carried out extensive investigation and research, focusing on industry operation, scientific and technological innovation, green development, industrial safety Key issues and problems such as talent strategy organized the questionnaire survey of "building a modern industrial system".

The research activity received positive feedback from key enterprises in the chemical fiber industry. As of July 14, 93 valid questionnaires had been received from enterprises, covering polyester, nylon, recycled cellulose fiber, recycled fiber, spandex, polypropylene, vinylon, high-performance fiber, bio based fiber and other sub industries, with strong universality and representativeness. This report is formed by summarizing, sorting out and comprehensively analyzing the collected questionnaires, with a view to providing reference for the government, institutions, industries, enterprises, etc. to grasp the characteristics and key concerns of the industry's operation and development trend, study and analyze the future key development direction of the industry, and formulate macro policies and development strategies.

　　 1、 The industry is showing a trend of gradual recovery, and further efforts should be made to expand downstream demand.

Since 2023, the production growth rate of the chemical fiber industry has gradually increased, but the recovery of the demand side is not as expected. In addition, the raw material cost side is squeezed, and the overall production and operation situation of the industry is still grim.

　　 1. The overall starting load of the industry was better than that of the same period last year. The domestic market improved in the second quarter. In addition, the export growth rate was obvious, and the inventory of major products was generally at a normal level. According to the feedback from the questionnaire survey, from January to April, 69.79% of the sample enterprises had an overall operating load of more than 80%, 72.05% had an output and marketing rate of more than 90%, and 77.42% had an inventory of less than 20 days. It can be seen that the industry's production and marketing situation was basically stable, and the inventory situation was basically good (Figure 1-Figure 3). Compared with the level of the same period in 2022, the chemical fiber industry's production and marketing showed a recovery trend.

Figure 1 Starting load of sample enterprises from January to April 2023

Figure 2 Production and sales rate of sample enterprises from January to April 2023

Figure 3 Inventory of sample enterprises from January to April 2023

　　 2. The enterprise's confidence in the recovery of the textile chemical fiber industry chain needs to be strengthened. According to the survey questionnaire, 40.86% of enterprises think the market situation from January to April 2023 is better than that of the same period last year, 26.88% think it is the same as that of the same period last year, but 30.11% think it is worse than that of the same period last year (Figure 4); For the chemical fiber market in 2023, only 33.33% of enterprises expect the chemical fiber market to improve in the whole year compared with the same period last year, and only 19.35% expect the market to improve in the second half of the year compared with the same period last year (Figure 5).

Figure 4 Market situation of sample enterprises from January to April 2023

Figure 5 Expectations of sample enterprises on chemical fiber market in 2023

From the perspective of the production and operation difficulties reflected by the sample enterprises, the main reasons for the lack of market confidence of enterprises are as follows: First, the recovery of terminal demand is not as expected, especially the high inventory in the European and American markets, which leads to the decrease of downstream orders and affects the sales of upstream raw materials; Second, the international situation is complex and changeable, the price of raw materials fluctuates greatly, and the downward transmission of prices is not smooth, so the cost side continues to exert pressure; Third, some industries have more new capacity, and structural overcapacity in some areas has become an unavoidable problem at the current stage. Homogeneous competition reduces the economic benefits of enterprises; Fourth, there are relatively few products with strong competitiveness and high added value, and the premium ability is insufficient; Fifthly, international trade frictions continue, and anti-dumping and countervailing events against China's chemical fiber product exports have reduced its export competitiveness; Sixth, the rising labor costs, resource factors and the cost of replacing coal with gas have led to rising production costs; Seventh, small and medium-sized enterprises are relatively difficult to obtain credit and are prone to difficulties in capital turnover.

　　 3. The survey found some common problems in the operation of the industry, providing a key direction for further improving the industry service work. First, integrate industry innovation resources, guide enterprises to carry out technological innovation, management innovation, system innovation and mechanism innovation, and constantly improve the competitiveness of enterprises; The second is to strengthen policy support, guide enterprises to transform and develop towards high-end, intelligent, green, etc., such as providing more incentive policies for the introduction of high-end technical talents and product innovation, encouraging and promoting the key application of new technologies and products, etc; Third, continue to strengthen the policy of expanding domestic demand. The industry should organize colorful consumption promotion activities to further boost terminal consumption and guide green consumption; Fourth, give more support to product export, such as guiding enterprises to form groups to "go global", participating in more overseas related exhibitions, and striving for more orders; Fifth, give more financial support to the real economy, such as strengthening credit guarantee and increasing direct financing, especially to improve the problem of difficult and expensive credit for SMEs; Sixth, we will continue to increase tax and fee reductions to reduce the cost of energy and labor for enterprises; Seventh, guide enterprises to invest prudently and promote self-discipline and sustainable development of the industry. For example, give full play to the guiding role of the Chemical Fiber Industry Investment Sensitivity Analysis (2023 version) to avoid blind expansion of enterprises; Eighth, accelerate the orderly exit of backward production capacity, and focus on supporting the application of advanced technology devices and low energy consumption equipment.

　　 2、 Collaborative innovation of the industrial chain and the introduction of high-end technical talents have become an important focus of scientific and technological innovation of enterprises.

After years of development, the scientific and technological strength of China's chemical fiber industry has been greatly enhanced, and the technical level has stepped into a new stage from following the world's leading level, providing strong support for China's economic development, people's livelihood improvement, ecological optimization and national security. At the same time, the new capacity of the industry is constructed at a high technological level. The advancement, capacity scale, energy consumption and integration level of the new devices bring certain cost and technical advantages, which promote the improvement of the industry's production level and the adjustment of the capacity structure.

　　 1. The overall production technology and equipment level of the current industry is relatively high. According to the feedback from the questionnaire survey, 64.52% of the sample enterprises believe that their current production technology and equipment level is at the leading level in China, 26.88% of the sample enterprises believe that their current production technology and equipment level is at the international advanced level, and only 8.60% of the sample enterprises believe that their current production technology and equipment level is at the general level in China (Figure 6).

Figure 6 Current production technology and equipment level of sample enterprises

　　 2. The R&D investment intensity of the surveyed enterprises is significantly better than that of the whole industry. The survey questionnaire shows that 56.99% of the sample enterprises' R&D investment accounts for 3%~5% of the main business income, most of which are enterprises in traditional industries that mainly focus on differentiated products; 25.81% of the sample enterprises' R&D investment accounted for more than 5% of the main business income, mainly high performance fiber and bio based fiber enterprises; 13.98% of the sample enterprises' R&D investment accounted for less than 3% of the main business income (Figure 7).

Figure 7 R&D investment intensity of sample enterprises in 2022

　　 3. At present, there are many reasons restricting the scientific and technological innovation of the industry, but they are relatively concentrated. The questionnaire shows that 54.84% of the sample enterprises think that the collaborative innovation of the industrial chain is not enough, and 48.39% of the sample enterprises think that the lack of high-end technical talents (Figure 8), both of which account for a relatively high proportion, also reflects the two focus points of the industry to further promote scientific and technological innovation. In addition, 34.41% thought that the industrial policy support was insufficient, and 33.33% thought that the R&D investment in technological innovation was insufficient.

Figure 8 Main reasons for restricting industry scientific and technological innovation

In fact, both chemical fiber associations and enterprises have made many practical actions in technological innovation and product research and development. As an important extension activity of China's fiber fashion trend, the Fiber Road - China's fiber fashion trend docking exchange activity was launched in 2021. In the past two years, chemical fiber enterprises have been organized to exchange and dock with nearly 20 clothing brand enterprises, which has effectively built a bridge for upstream and downstream communication, helping the collaborative innovation of the industrial chain. The joint construction of R&D bases by the Chemical Fiber Association and enterprises is to focus on promoting product R&D and technological progress in the industry, and lead the industry in collaborative innovation. The national advanced functional fiber innovation center, led by Shenghong Group, fully integrates the power of "production, learning, research and application", focuses on tackling key core technologies and breaking the development bottleneck. Leading enterprises such as Tongkun Group, Hengyi Group and Huafeng Chemical have set up their own research institutes to introduce high-end technical talents, vigorously carry out basic research and "choke" technology research, and constantly promote industrial transformation and upgrading.

　　 4. Main directions of technical equipment R&D and product R&D. In the highly competitive market, quality and differentiated competition will always accompany the development of the industry, thus promoting the continuous research and development of high added value and high function varieties of chemical fiber. Green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing are the trend of the times, and the expansion and cross-border integration of application fields represented by new fiber materials and industrial use are also the top priorities of the scientific and technological development of the chemical fiber industry. According to the feedback from the survey questionnaire, the main directions of the sample enterprises' next technological equipment R&D and product R&D also confirm these trends.

In terms of technical equipment R&D, it mainly focuses on: continuously promoting high-end and intelligent key technical equipment and improving production management level; Realize the stable operation of domestic substitution of key equipment such as winding head, and improve the ability of independent control; Technical upgrading of existing equipment, focusing on promoting the direction of energy conservation and consumption reduction; R&D investment in key technology and equipment in the fields of large and small varieties, high-performance fibers, and bio based fibers, leading the scientific and technological frontier.

In terms of product research and development, it mainly focuses on: vigorously developing differentiated and functional products, optimizing product structure, improving product quality, constantly meeting diversified downstream needs, and improving the brand influence of enterprises with high value-added products; While focusing on the main business, extend the industrial chain, such as actively exploring material research and development and customized production in the fields of intelligent wear, mass health, filter materials, etc; With green and low-carbon as the core, technological breakthroughs are carried out around bio based and degradable polyester, recycled chemical fiber, functional polyester, functional master batch, green catalyst, etc.

　　 5. Intelligent manufacturing in chemical fiber industry has made many achievements. As for the level of intelligent manufacturing in the industry, the surveyed enterprises show great differences. The survey questionnaire shows that intelligent manufacturing in chemical fiber industry is still mainly reflected in the stage of establishing automatic winding packaging system, three-dimensional storage system, and intelligent manufacturing demonstration workshop and factory. Among them, the sample enterprises that have built intelligent manufacturing demonstration plants account for 25.81%, the sample enterprises that have built intelligent manufacturing demonstration workshops account for 30.11%, the sample enterprises that have built intelligent three-dimensional storage systems account for 32.26%, and the sample enterprises that have built intelligent winding and packaging systems account for 34.41% (Figure 9). It should be noted that there are 4 enterprises that choose to fully realize intelligent manufacturing, which may be caused by the misunderstanding of the preparers on "fully realizing intelligent manufacturing".

Figure 9 Intelligent manufacturing level of sample enterprises

As for the main reason that currently restricts intelligent manufacturing in the industry, the survey questionnaire shows that 51.61% of the sample enterprises think it is the lack of relevant technical talents, 41.94% of the enterprises think it is the lack of investment in enterprise research and development and equipment, 34.41% of the enterprises think it is the lack of industrial policy support, and 29.03% of the enterprises think it is the immaturity of relevant technical software, 13.98% of the enterprises think that it is due to their lack of ideological understanding (Figure 10).

Figure 10 Main reasons restricting intelligent manufacturing in the industry

At present, most chemical fiber enterprises have recognized that intelligent manufacturing is an important support for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. By actively exploring and practicing advanced technologies and concepts such as big data, Internet+, cloud platform, industrial robots, artificial intelligence, etc., we will promote the in-depth application of modern information technologies such as ERP, MES, etc. in the design, production, marketing, logistics and other links of the chemical fiber industry, and promote the flexible, intelligent and refined development of the production model. The chemical fiber industry has been applied in automation equipment Good results have been achieved in the construction of intelligent workshops/factories, automated warehousing and logistics, and the construction and application of a number of intelligent manufacturing demonstration projects have effectively improved the level of intelligent manufacturing in the industry.

In the future, at the government level, we should increase financial support and give full play to the guiding role of financial funds; Give preferential tax policies and insurance compensation, and open up a green channel for major investment in intelligent manufacturing; Encourage the flow of financial, human, land and other factor resources to advanced intelligent manufacturing enterprises. At the industry level, it is necessary to actively carry out technical exchanges of intelligent manufacturing demonstration projects; Strengthen the guidance of cultivating typical demonstration enterprises, and carry out the training of intelligent manufacturing technology talents; Formulate relevant standards for industrial intelligent manufacturing; Build an intelligent manufacturing industry alliance, and coordinate the role of industry core technology innovation resources. At the enterprise level, it is necessary to continue to increase the investment in automation and intelligence, focus on the whole industrial chain of design, production, logistics, sales and service, accelerate the application of digital technology, and fully realize the replacement of machines in individual processes; Focusing on intelligent equipment, interconnection, system integration, resource optimization and other aspects, improve the enterprise's core big data integration and application capabilities, and gradually build enterprise intelligent production lines, intelligent workshops, and intelligent factory systems.

　　 3、 Green development has become the core concern of the chemical fiber industry, and some enterprises' understanding and actions on sustainable development have taken the lead in the industry.

With the increasingly strict national environmental protection policy and the increasing social awareness of environmental protection, the chemical fiber industry has actively carried out energy-saving and carbon reduction green technology transformation, and accelerated the construction of green manufacturing system, which has achieved good results.

　　 1. At present, the level of green production technology and equipment in the industry is at the leading level in China. According to the feedback from the questionnaire survey, 62.37% of the sample enterprises believe that their current green production technology and equipment level is at the leading level in China, 16.13% of the enterprises believe that their current green production technology and equipment level is at the international advanced level, but 15.05% of the enterprises still believe that their current green production technology and equipment level is at the general level in China (Figure 11).

Figure 11 Green production technology and equipment level of sample enterprises

　　 2. The green transformation of the industry has made significant progress. Promoting green low-carbon circular development and promoting comprehensive green transformation has become an important strategy for the industry, and sustainable development is crucial to the operation of enterprises. According to the survey questionnaire, 59.14% of the sample enterprises have carried out energy conservation and emission reduction technology research and development and storage, 39.78% of the sample enterprises have completed the green factory evaluation, 36.56% of the sample enterprises have formulated the company's "double carbon" goals and implementation plans, 33.33% of the sample enterprises have carried out the green fiber certification of the Association, and 23.66% of the sample enterprises have completed the carbon footprint measurement (Figure 12). The specific work includes: adopting efficient and energy-saving production processes, promoting cleaner production, establishing full process digital control, and deepening green full life cycle management; Focus on tackling green and low-carbon technologies, and increase the R&D and application of degradable, renewable and recyclable fiber materials; Pay attention to the recycling of energy resources, replace traditional energy with renewable energy such as hydropower, wind power and photoelectric energy, and increase the utilization rate of green energy; Formulate the "double carbon" goal, carry out information disclosure, implement the emission reduction plan, and launch the "zero carbon" product development plan.

Figure 12 The sample enterprises have completed the work related to green development

The green fiber certification work carried out by China Chemical Fiber Association has achieved good results. The certification includes three categories of green fibers and their products: bio based chemical fibers, recycled chemical fibers, and liquid colored chemical fibers. Relying on a complete set of advanced standards, the certification has green and low-carbon requirements for the production process, raw and auxiliary materials, and product quality, and can provide reliable services for consumers, manufacturers, and brands, This is a powerful exploration of China's textile and chemical fiber independent certification system, and is committed to providing a new scheme for the chemical fiber material industry chain that has a positive impact on global climate change.

It is worth noting that under the guidance of CV Alliance, the recognition and action of renewable cellulose fiber industry on sustainable development has taken the lead in the whole industry. Several CV alliance enterprises have begun to systematically promote the construction of enterprise sustainable management system, and have made substantial progress in the enterprise's "double carbon" goal, closed-loop clean production, sustainable development report preparation, product carbon footprint tracing, sustainable brand design, etc., which has established a wide influence in the domestic and foreign textile industry chain and terminal markets. These experiences are worth learning for the whole industry.

　　 3. There are many reasons restricting the green development of chemical fiber industry. The questionnaire shows that 44.09% of the sample enterprises think that the policy support is insufficient, 37.63% of the sample enterprises think that it is difficult to promote the market, 34.41% of the sample enterprises think that it is the lack of relevant technical talents, and 33.33% of the sample enterprises think that it is the poor cooperation in the industrial chain (Figure 13). In addition, about 1/4 of the enterprises believe that production technology and equipment are immature, and the enterprise innovation investment is insufficient.

Figure 13 Main reasons restricting the green development of the industry

Accordingly, in order to further promote the green development of the industry, it is necessary to gather various resources such as policies, markets, technologies, and talents, such as increasing policy support, strengthening financial support such as industrial transformation and upgrading funds, special construction funds, green credit, and supporting local funds, and continuously promoting green design products, green factories, green industrial parks, and green supply chain management; Strengthen green publicity, advocate resource recycling, green low-carbon lifestyle, and guide green consumption; Carry out basic research, encourage green technology transformation, and further promote the construction of green manufacturing system; Cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to promote the use of green fiber products and improve the recognition of green fiber certification products.

　　 4、 The in-depth adjustment of the world economic pattern has brought about new industrial issues. It is necessary to coordinate industrial development and industrial security, and enhance the anti shock ability of the industrial system.

At present, the world is in a situation of great change not seen in a century. The epidemic situation in the century has far-reaching impact. The trend of anti globalization is rising, unilateralism and protectionism are rising significantly, the global industrial chain supply chain is reshuffled, and the world economic pattern has undergone profound changes. With a view to ensuring national security, public security, industrial security, etc., major economies in the world will inevitably give priority to their own national interests for policy adjustment. In this new round of adjustment, the reconstruction of the global industrial pattern is bound to lead to the reshaping of international rules.

According to the feedback from the survey questionnaire, 54.84% of the sample enterprises believe that the intensification of product international trade friction is the main problem facing the industrial safety of the chemical fiber industry (Figure 14). In recent years, the export volume of China's chemical fiber products has gradually increased, and anti-dumping and countervailing incidents against its exports have occurred frequently. Recently, India's BIS certification involves some polyester products, which has also had a certain impact on chemical fiber exports. Therefore, it is more necessary to be alert to international trade frictions and trade barriers to maintain the stable growth of export market share.

23.66% of the enterprises chose to rely on import of key technical equipment, and the industrial chain is not complete. 19.35% of the enterprises chose to rely on import control of key technical equipment, parts or products, and 18.28% chose a single technical route of raw materials. These are also the main factors affecting the steady and safe development of the chemical fiber industry. This is also basically consistent with the choke technology and short board problems that currently restrict the development of the industry, and is also the top priority of strengthening the safety of the chemical fiber industry at present and in the future.

Figure 14 Main Problems Faced by Current Industry Safety

The in-depth adjustment of the world economic pattern has brought new industrial issues. Faced with many factors affecting industrial safety, it is necessary to coordinate development and safety, enhance the impact resistance of the industrial system, such as strengthening the research and development of key technology and equipment, strengthening the chain to supplement and extend the chain, and encouraging, guiding and supporting the application and substitution of domestic materials; Based on the "double circulation" pattern, expand application traction and improve industrial chain coordination and linkage; Strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, participate in and lead the formulation of trade rules of major countries, and improve the position in international division of labor; Pay attention to the changes in the international situation, cooperate with the pace of downstream industry transfer, and do a good job in the development of overseas markets; Establish an early warning mechanism to prevent risks of abnormal international capital flow, data network security, geopolitical risks, international trade friction risks, etc.

　　 5、 Enterprise development needs a group of compound talents who understand technology, cross industry chain, market and management.

With the increasingly strong innovation atmosphere in the industry, talent, as the main body of innovation, plays an increasingly prominent role. The survey shows that enterprises generally attach great importance to talents, especially high-end technical talents, senior marketing talents and senior management talents.

　　 1. Enterprises have the most urgent demand for high-end technical talents. According to the feedback from the questionnaire, 68.82% of the sample enterprises have a demand for high-end technical talents, which also confirms that the introduction of high-end technical talents has become an important focus of scientific and technological innovation of enterprises. In addition, 43.01% of the sample enterprises have a demand for senior marketing talents, and 35.48% of the sample enterprises have a demand for international management and operation talents (Figure 15). It can be seen that the development of enterprises needs a batch of complex talents who understand technology, not only in this field but also across the industry chain, as well as technology, market and management.

Figure 15 Demand for senior talents of sample enterprises

　　 2. The talents of enterprises are mainly trained independently, and social employment (including high-tech employment) and graduate recruitment are also the main ways. In terms of ways for enterprises to obtain talents, the survey questionnaire shows that the sample enterprises that choose the enterprise independent training mode account for 73.12%, and the sample enterprises that choose the public recruitment, school recruitment of graduates, high salary employment and other methods account for more than 50%, which is the main source of enterprise talents at present. In addition, 37.63% of the sample enterprises choose to employ university researchers part-time (Figure 16).

Figure 16 Main channels for sample enterprises to obtain talents

The chemical fiber industry is the core support for the steady development and continuous innovation of the textile industry chain, an industry with international competitive advantages, and an important part of the new material industry. How to cultivate innovative, professional and compound talents is an important issue related to the high-quality development of the industry. In the future, the industry should improve the concept, system, mechanism, path and resources of talent training, follow the laws of talent growth and scientific research activities, and attract, retain and make good use of talents. For example, improve the work, scientific research and exchange policies of high-end talents and professionals, and create a competitive and attractive environment for outstanding talents in terms of salary and welfare, children's education, social security, etc; At the same time, we should increase the design of technical talent development channels and the establishment of incentive mechanisms.

In terms of talent training and incentive, the China Chemical Fiber Association has done a lot of exploration and practice. The "National Advanced Training Course for Textile Composite Talents Training Project" focuses on training composite management talents. Since the opening of the course in 2015, it has successfully held seven sessions, and has now formed from textile raw materials to machinery and equipment, from fiber production to yarn weaving A complete industrial chain education system from fabric research and development to end brand; "China Chemical Fiber Industry Association · Hengyi Fund" outstanding scientific and technological talents award focuses on awarding high-end technical talents, carrying forward the spirit of craftsmen and promoting technological progress.

In the future, the chemical fiber industry will also focus on strengthening the training of all kinds of talents, continue to improve the school enterprise joint innovative talent training model, and focus on cultivating market demand oriented skilled talents; Through cooperation with different organizations such as brands, testing and finance, we can cultivate compound talents with international vision; Build various talent exchange platforms in the industry and regularly carry out high-end technical talent exchange; Establish various talent pools in the industry, carry out the training and construction of talent echelon in the industry, and enhance the matching between enterprises and talent supply and demand.

(Source: China Chemical Fiber Industry Association)