Dong Kuiyong, President Of China Cotton Textile Industry Association: Grasp The "Key Of New Quality" And Bravely Step On The "Thorny Road"

The "recovery" in 2024 is the main theme of the development of the entire textile industry. However, due to the continuous impact of international environment, trade protectionism, industrial security and other issues, as well as the impact of raw material supply and the two-way extrusion of insufficient terminal effective demand, the overall recovery of the cotton textile industry is weak in the entire textile industry chain system.

At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the reporter interviewed Dong Kuiyong, President of China Cotton Textile Industry Association To fully understand the difficulties encountered in the development of the cotton textile industry in the past year, the characteristics presented, and the development prospects in 2025. Dong Kuiyong pointed out that in the face of pressure, China's cotton textile industry, centering on the goal of building a modern industrial system of cotton textile, has risen to the challenge, taken an active role, calmly responded to various risks and challenges, and worked hard to achieve stable economic development of the industry. In 2025, the adverse impact of external environmental changes will continue to deepen, the internal transformation of new and old drivers will still experience periodic pains, and the cotton textile industry will still face many challenges, but new quality productivity is an emerging growth driver, so the industry needs to grasp the "key of new quality" to accelerate transformation and upgrading.

　　 2024 with heavy load highlights toughness

In 2024, the cotton textile industry will be under multiple pressures. An important performance is that the two key ratio indicators of operating income profit rate and loss area of enterprises above designated size will reach the lowest level in more than ten years.

According to the data from January to November of the National Bureau of Statistics, since this year, the main economic indicators of cotton textile have been under obvious pressure. Compared with industrial enterprises above designated size, manufacturing industry and textile industry, the operating income, total profit, operating profit margin, cost per 100 yuan of operating income, asset liability ratio The main indicators such as the turnover days of finished goods inventory are lagging behind to varying degrees.

For example, from January to November, the operating revenue of cotton textile industry on a regular basis increased slightly by 0.7%, and the total profit decreased significantly by 17.9%, dragging down the operating revenue profit margin of the industry, which was only 1.92%. In addition, from January to November, the loss of cotton textile enterprises on the scale was 23.9%, the highest since 2011.

Dong Kuiyong said that it must be pointed out that while the industry is coping with various challenges and pressures, some positive factors are also accumulating. From the perspective of industrial economic operation data, under the superposition of stock policy and incremental policy, and under the support of macroeconomic policies such as "two new" and "double", many economic data have marginal improvement and indicator repair; From the trend of the year, the main indicators such as loss area and profit rate also showed a trend of continuous repair.

And in terms of exports, the cotton textile industry in 2024 also handed over a gratifying answer. Dong Kuiyong said that thanks to China's complete industrial chain supply chain system and strong domestic demand market foundation, China's cotton textile industry has certain international competitiveness. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to November, the export delivery value of China's cotton spinning yarn and cotton weaving increased by 14.6% and 0.81% respectively year on year. Although the export delivery value data of the cotton textile industry is lower than the textile export growth rate announced by the customs, the continuous recovery trend is still an important support for the stable operation of the industry.

In addition, another noteworthy growth is the US market. Affected by the "Xinjiang related issues" and other factors, the export amount of cotton textiles and clothing will continue to decline from 2021 to 2023, especially the proportion of cotton textiles and clothing exported to the United States in the global export of cotton textiles and clothing will continue to decline, and the market share of China's cotton textiles and clothing in the United States will also continue to decline, and the decline will be more obvious.

However, this trend will reach a turning point in 2024. From January to November 2024, the export of cotton textiles and clothing to the United States increased by 9.7% year on year, and the proportion of cotton textiles and clothing in the total cotton textiles and clothing rose steadily.

　　 2024, which has been thoroughly refined, has many highlights

In 2024, the cotton textile industry will be under heavy pressure, but even in the difficult situation, there are still some highlights. These highlights are not only reflected in the data of economic operation, but also in the various dimensions of high-quality development of the industry.

Dong Kuiyong said that in 2024, the overall level of production equipment in the cotton textile industry will continue to improve. High speed, intelligent and green production lines will have advantages in production efficiency, production costs and other aspects, and the competitiveness of the industry will be significantly enhanced.

For example, the high-speed spinning is the highlight of the annual development. It is reported that in recent years, the high-speed production line has developed from the attempt of individual enterprises to the standard configuration for new enterprises. Most of the ring spinning production lines newly put into production in 2024 are high-speed spinning. In addition, high-speed and efficient equipment such as air jet vortex spinning and high-speed looms also maintained a high growth.

In terms of intelligence, the intelligent system of spinning and weaving is becoming more mature, and the research and development of intelligent equipment such as spinning automatic joint robot, automatic cloth inspection system, cotton textile regional logistics robot is advancing rapidly, and good results have been achieved.

In terms of greening, the green and energy saving of the overall equipment has long been the basic requirement for the equipment selection of cotton textile enterprises. In 2024, the outstanding enterprises in the industry represented by Jiangsu Dasheng will be the first to start the exploration of "zero carbon factory" of cotton textile.

In terms of regional layout, due to the rising cost of various factors in the central and eastern regions, the layout of China's cotton textile industry has gradually shifted to the western region in recent years, and the transfer trend of the previous years will continue in 2024. Among them, Xinjiang's cotton textile production capacity has increased significantly since the "14th Five Year Plan" by virtue of its raw material advantages, energy advantages, regional advantages and industrial policy support. According to the research of China Cotton Textile Industry Association, Xinjiang's spinning capacity has exceeded 27 million spindles by the end of 2024, accounting for about 25% of the total domestic energy, 6 percentage points higher than that of 2020.

The product structure is changing from routine to differentiation. At present, China's cotton textile multi fiber composite blending and new structure spinning, weaving and processing technology more uses different styles of differentiated yarn and cloth, and new varieties continue to increase.

Dong Kuiyong said: At present, the cotton textile industry is in a period of accelerated transformation and evolution of traditional growth drivers and emerging growth drivers, and pain is inevitable. In the process of development, the industry should grasp the new quality productivity, seize the opportunity of digital and intelligent enabling industry's "integration of data and reality", seize the opportunity given by the scientific and technological revolution to improve the industry's total factor productivity, seize the opportunity of green development becoming an international consensus and national strategy, and promote the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation through the development of new quality productivity, Promote the high-end, intelligent and green upgrading of the cotton textile industry.

　　 The more complex 2025, firm belief

After the "extremely cold" year of 2024, will the industry "recover" in 2025?

Dong Kuiyong said that in 2025, the cotton textile industry must still face a severe and complex international situation, trade protectionism, industrial security and other issues are still hanging in the air, and the overall development environment is still full of uncertainty.

For example, on the raw material side, raw materials account for a large proportion of cotton textile production costs, and the financial properties of raw materials and their price fluctuations have a particularly significant impact on the operation of enterprises. In particular, cotton is affected by various factors, such as domestic and foreign price linkage, financial attributes, weather factors, policy factors, quota management, market sentiment, trade risks, etc. While occupying funds, cotton raw materials and product inventory often put pressure on the operation of enterprises in terms of price. Enterprises that are not good at operating financial instruments will encounter more difficulties.

At the production end, with the rising cost of labor, energy, land and other factors, environmental protection policies are increasingly strict, and the comprehensive cost of enterprises is gradually rising. At the same time, low-cost countries have also formed medium and long-term competitive pressure. In terms of technological innovation and manufacturing, some core technologies and equipment are still restricted by others. For example, equipment and key parts such as air jet vortex spinning machines and high-end air jet looms are mostly imported. In terms of market response, for most cotton textile enterprises, carrying out domestic trade and foreign trade is an economic activity under two business models. There are certain barriers in technology, quality and standards, and there are obstacles in integrating into the "double cycle".

At the market end, the effective demand of the terminal is insufficient and the external dependence is high. The production capacity of China's cotton yarn and cotton weaving accounts for more than 50% and 45% of the world respectively, the population of China accounts for 17.5% of the world, and the consumption accounts for only 13% of the world. There is a large gap between production capacity and consumption, leading to high dependence on foreign trade of cotton textile end products. However, the recovery of the international market is still weak in general, and the pressure on industry exports still exists. At present, China's domestic demand is generally in the trend of repair and expansion, but some macroeconomic indicators show that the terminal effective consumption demand related to cotton textile is still insufficient, and the foundation for cotton textile to rebound is still unstable. In 2025, if the consumer side macro data fails to improve significantly, the pressure transmitted from the terminal to the cotton textile industry may still restrict the industry's growth.

On the development environment side, from the internal point of view, the industry's attention is reduced and the special support policies are less, which has affected the development confidence of enterprises to a certain extent, and also led to problems such as older employees, lower average academic qualifications, slow growth of innovation investment, and insufficient motivation for transformation and upgrading. Externally, "Xinjiang related issues" continue to affect the safety of the industrial chain.

However, Dong Kuiyong also stressed that the Central Economic Work Conference will inject confidence into the new year. A more active and promising macro policy will help expand domestic demand, promote the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and help stabilize expectations and stimulate vitality of the cotton textile industry. He believes that the industry can maintain a steady and positive development trend in general. Enterprises should also firmly believe, actively respond to challenges, seize opportunities, strengthen international cooperation, jointly respond to trade protectionism, maintain industrial security, and promote the prosperity and development of the global textile industry. At the same time, we should pay close attention to market dynamics, flexibly adjust business strategies, improve market competitiveness, and ensure the steady progress of the industry.

Dong Kuiyong said: China Cotton Textile Industry Association will also focus on improving service capabilities and building communication platforms from industry research, scientific and technological innovation, fashion development, green manufacturing, talent construction and other dimensions to help enterprises develop in high quality. Specifically, the Association will strive to improve the accuracy, comprehensiveness and logicality of statistical data, strengthen the depth, foresight and reference value of operational analysis, and provide timely information for industry business decisions. The Association will strengthen communication with enterprises, understand their demands and help them solve problems. Continue to study and judge the operation of the industry, and do a good job in the research of various subdivisions.

In terms of scientific and technological innovation, the Association will carry out corresponding basic research and industry mapping work from both scientific and technological development and technological innovation. Track the latest trends and development trends of intelligent, digital and artificial intelligence applications in the industry, and promote industry success stories; Focusing on clusters and small and medium-sized enterprises, promote the intelligent and digital transformation of industrial stock equipment; Promote upstream and downstream cooperation to jointly solve the pain points and difficulties of intelligent production in the production process of "small batch, multiple varieties and quick response" of differentiated yarn enterprises. Continue to carry out industry standardization work, focusing on building a perfect industry standard system from new materials, new processes and other aspects.

In terms of fashion development, the Association will solidly promote the main work related to yarn exhibition, fashion trends, brand promotion, industrial chain docking, etc., show the society the fashionable and high-level industrial image of China's cotton textile industry, and enhance the confidence of industry culture.

In terms of green manufacturing, the Association will continue to guide more cotton textile enterprises to carry out the cultivation and guidance of green factories and green supply chain management enterprises in a broad, accurate and high-quality manner, continue to follow up the work process of the enterprises that have been declared by green factories, further improve the quality of evaluation reports and service levels, and help more cotton textile enterprises to become city level, provincial level National green factory; We will accelerate the development of carbon footprint standards for cotton textile products and guide the rapid development of green manufacturing system in the industry.

In terms of talent construction, the Association will do a good job in the enrollment and training organization of the ninth national advanced training course for textile composite talent training engineering (referred to as "advanced textile training course"), expand the depth and breadth of the course, and strengthen the communication and contact with the students of previous advanced training courses and field visits; Strengthen the publicity, implementation and promotion of outstanding talents and craftsman spirit, and do a good job in talent recommendation; Carry out online and offline diversified skilled personnel training and services, and constantly deepen skilled personnel work.

In terms of raw material guarantee, the Association will do a good job in publicity and guidance, give full play to the guiding role of industrial policies, promote cotton system reform, import quota reform, target price reform, reserve cotton rotation and other work, pay attention to cotton industry safety and other issues, and promote high-quality development of the industry. To safeguard the interests of the industry, reflect the demands of the industry to the relevant national departments, take the work of the raw material industry chain branch as the starting point, serve the raw material guarantee of enterprises, and ensure the cotton demand of enterprises.