Zibo Textile and Garment Industry: From “Red Sea” to “Blue Ocean”

Zibo Textile and Garment Industry: From “Red Sea” to “Blue Ocean”

The textile and garment industry is one of the top ten industries identified in Shandong Province. Recently, the first textile and clothing competition of the “Governor’s Cup” Industrial Design Competition came to an end. Four textile and clothing companies in our city took home the awards of the “Governor’s Cup” Industrial Design Competition. Among them, Lu Thai Textile’s “cross-border knitting” won the gold medal in the sub-competition, becoming one of the three gold medals in the province.

Zibo’s textile and apparel industry has a solid foundation and a complete industrial system. It is an indispensable traditional advantageous industry for the city. In April this year, the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology formulated and issued the “Modern Light Textile Industry 2022 Action Plan”, ushering in new development opportunities for the textile and garment industry.

1 Technology empowers the leading goose to lead the way

Under the adverse influence of the international environment and other adverse influences, Zibo’s textile enterprises have shown strong development resilience and moved forward steadily under pressure. By the end of 2021, there were 66 textile enterprises above designated size in the city, with an average number of employees of 23,200. They achieved annual operating income of 12.895 billion yuan and profit of 929 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.09% and 39.78% respectively.

As the world’s largest manufacturer of yarn-dyed fabrics, Luthai Textile produces yarn-dyed fabrics that can circle 5.5 times around the equator every year. It is a veritable “hidden champion” of yarn-dyed fabrics. my country’s textile industry has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and a textile powerhouse has been basically established. “Lu Thai, as a private enterprise that emerged from the reform and opening up, can now be said to be ‘clothing the world and covering the world.'” Talking about the growth of Lu Thai Textile, Liu Zibin, chairman of Lu Thai Textile, was both emotional and proud.

Thousands of yarns, fabrics, and shirts of various colors are arranged. Anyone who enters the Lutai Textile Fabrics Museum is attracted by this “scenery” scene. The “seamless shirt” in the hands of the staff looks no different from an ordinary shirt, but there are no stitches or sewing threads on the entire shirt. This shirt is made of environmentally friendly polymer hot-melt adhesive materials suitable for pure cotton fabrics. It uses “welding” technology to replace sewing. The strength of the seams is higher than that of the seams, subverting the the traditional production model. “Technological innovation is the driving force for development.” Liu Zibin felt this deeply. He said that to be an industry leader, you must not blindly follow the footsteps of others.

Technological empowerment is also subverting traditional perceptions at Hengli Textile. “Intelligence is the path we must take.” Liu Linming, general manager of Hengli Textile, said that it has overcome many key “stuck neck” technologies in the world and developed and produced High-end environmentally friendly functional fabrics are full of technology and are called “air-conditioning fabrics”. They have many special functions such as light-shielding and heat preservation, rainproof and breathable, UV protection, and flame retardant. They are currently cooperating with world-renowned companies such as Decathlon of France, Columbia of the United States, and IKEA of Sweden. A cooperative relationship has been established. The Zhoucun factory is Decathlon’s only global R&D base besides its French headquarters. 70% of Decathlon’s functional fabrics are produced by Hengli Textile.

Lutai Textile and Hengli Textile are the banners of the textile and garment industry in Zibo City, and are also a microcosm of the development history of leading textile companies. At present, Qilu Petrochemical Acrylic Fiber Factory is the only dry-laid acrylic fiber enterprise in the country; Yinshilai is the largest jacquard fabric manufacturer in the country; Dyefang Group is the largest silk weaving company in Jiangbei Printing, bleaching and dyeing enterprise.

Leading companies lead the way and have strong technological support. Five projects in Zibo’s textile industry have passed the appraisal of scientific and technological achievements at or above the provincial and ministerial levels, 10 products have won national, provincial and ministerial level scientific and technological progress awards, and it has 4 national-level enterprise technology centers, accounting for 1/4 of the province; a national-level industrial design center 2, accounting for 1/6 of the country, solved the key technical problem of “stuck neck” and promoted the overall improvement of the competitiveness of the textile industry.

2Traditional innovation clusters

The textile and garment industry in Zibo City has a profound foundation and a development history of more than 3,000 years. It is a dominant traditional industry and has been named one of the three major industrial clusters by the China Textile Federation.

Anyone familiar with the textile industry knows that the textile industry is a highly competitive industry, and cruel elimination and shuffle occur at any time in the industry. Founded in 2003, Yinshilai has remained as solid as a rock in a competitive environment like waves. The secret of this is inseparable from the word “innovation”. When Yinshilai was founded, it “did not take the usual path” and positioned itself in the market segment of high-end jacquard fabrics, instead of “following the trend” and choosing the traditional positioning of mid- to low-end.

Tian Chengjie, deputy general manager of Yinshilai, said that around 2010, a large number of orders from Europe and the United States poured in. Many domestic textile companies were content with OEM and ignored technological updates. However, Yinshilai has gradually increased its efforts in the development and market expansion of new materials and new fiber products. “Either on the way to the laboratory or production workshop, or on the way to study and study.” Tian Chengjie said that it was the innovative spirit from the beginning that opened up a path to traditional advantageous industries.

Old silk walks out of the “new silk road”. “When we saw our products on exhibits in foreign silk museums, we couldn’t be more excited.”Chen Lu, chairman of the workshop, said with emotion that the Zhoucun silk industry began to rise in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and had become the center of Shandong’s silk industry by the early 1930s. , Every household weaves silk and satin.” This folk song vividly depicts the grand occasion of the mulberry and silk weaving industry in Zhoucun, known as the “Hometown of Silk.” Today, Dyeing House is still continuing its silk glory in the long river of time.

Dyeingfang is the leading manufacturer of wide-width silk fabrics in the country. Its total silk weaving volume ranks first in the country, and its printing and dyeing production capacity and technological level rank first in Jiangbei. At present, Dyeingfang is making every effort to promote the intelligent transformation project of the entire industry chain of “retreating from the city to the park” and will build the world’s first silk production enterprise with fully intelligent weaving equipment, fully realizing “scientific layout, green kinetic energy, and intelligent production” , equipment automation, high-end products, operational capitalization, and management modernization” set goals, by which time sales revenue will reach 2.5 billion yuan.

As the “single champion” of silk weaving, Zibo Dyeing House is the only domestic silk enterprise with a complete industrial chain of self-reeling, weaving, printing and dyeing, home textile products, cultural and creative products, clothing and apparel, and domestic and foreign trade.

Traditional advantageous industries are gaining momentum. At present, Zibo City has formed two industrial chains of upstream and downstream division of labor and dependence. One is led by key enterprises such as Lutai Textile, Yinshilai, and Hengli, forming a chain from “textile materials → spinning → weaving → printing and dyeing → ready-made garments → The full-cycle textile industry chain of “trade” is led by key enterprises such as Dyeingfang and Hairun, forming a full-cycle silk industry chain from “reeling → weaving → finished products → trade”.

In 2021, 44 textile and clothing industry chain companies had operating income of 11.34 billion yuan and profit of 910 million yuan; in 2022, 78 textile and clothing industry chain companies had operating income of 6.87 billion yuan from January to June, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%; profit 710 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 139.6%.

　3 Digital platforms enter the blue ocean intelligently

Facing the current situation of narrowing profit margins, bottlenecks in human resources, and loss of overseas orders, where is the “outlet” of the textile industry? Where is the “blue ocean”? On September 28, the 2022 Digital Empowerment of Real Economy Shandong Tour came to Zibo. More than 70 light textile companies in our city discussed digitaltransformation and upgrading.

“Take the United States as an example, personalized customization has become very common, and a personalized garment is more than 10 times more profitable than ordinary clothing.” Shandong ShanniuIntelligent Manufacturing Co., Ltd., believes that the era of on-demand production has quietly arrived. Not only that, companies also have “pain points” such as difficulty in recruiting workers and low profits. To solve these problems, we must first build a platform for digital transformation.