Traditional Industries Need To "Counter Internal Involvement", "We Are Small And Strong"

As one of the traditional industries, China's textile industry is facing severe external difficulties and internal worries. Externally, many enterprises are greatly affected by the suppression of the United States and the West; Internally, the phenomenon of involution is serious, especially the e-commerce platform mode brings great pressure to the traditional manufacturing industry. Under this situation, a number of textile enterprises have changed their minds. The reporter interviewed many small and medium-sized textile enterprises and found that their tenacious vitality is amazing. The boss of an enterprise said: "We are the cockroaches that cannot be killed."

　　 Traditional industries should be "anti involution"

This year's government work report proposed that we should comprehensively tackle "involute" competition, which aroused strong social concern.

Zhang Jiangping, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Taipingbird Group, said that in recent years, "inner roll" competition has gradually become the focus of public opinion, and the clothing and textile industry has also been deeply affected. How to expand domestic demand and break the internal volume is an important issue facing the industry today, and also a realistic path for the industry to achieve high-quality development.

Zhang Jiangping analyzed that the imbalance between supply and demand is one of the fundamental reasons for the inner volume, and consumption should be boosted from both sides of supply and demand. From the perspective of enterprises, we should focus on brand leadership, actively embrace new formats and channels, promote digital transformation, and accelerate the upgrading of strategies, products, channels, and marketing. At the same time, it is necessary to crack down on insider competition, focus on cracking down on illegal behaviors such as false propaganda, traffic hijacking, and commercial slander according to law, standardize the order of e-commerce market, and create a sustainable development ecology of e-commerce.

Many insiders told the semimonthly reporter that Zhang Jiangping's views reflected the aspirations of the textile industry.

"The international situation is squeezing, and the domestic production capacity is declining, and China's textile industry is currently facing severe challenges." The textile industry insiders said that the rising production costs, fluctuations in raw material prices, the competitive pressure on the industrial chain in Southeast Asia, and the serious phenomenon of internal involution of the industry have led to increased operating pressure on many enterprises.

Many bosses of garment enterprises reported that in recent years, with the rapid development of technology iteration and online sales platforms, homogenized competition in the market for brands, products, prices, promotions and other products has become normal. Some enterprises even slide towards low quality, low price, and low gross profit. It is urgent to create a more healthy development environment for enterprises.

Photo by Liu Hongyu, a common knitting machine in the textile industry

　　 If you dare to try, you can gain vitality

"The world is changing, and if you don't change, you will be eliminated." Xiong Li, chairman of Guangdong Foshan Haowangjiao Clothing Co., Ltd., said that enterprises should dare to try new things to gain vitality.

In 2011, Xiong Li, who just graduated from university, borrowed 200000 yuan to start her business. She rented a 200 square meter factory and opened a small workshop style clothing factory. Three years later, her factory was expanded to 400 square meters. Twelve years later, she rented a new factory with an area of 3000 square meters.

"Business is good or not, but it is also good if it is bad. We should focus on stability and not blindly rush forward." Xiong Li said that during the epidemic, enterprise orders declined seriously, and a business friend recommended the Xiyin model to her. Xiyin is a fast fashion cross-border e-commerce enterprise. Its leading production model of "small order fast reaction" deeply affects the internal structure of the global textile industry chain.

"The cooperation with Xiyin has alleviated the difficulty of declining orders of enterprises. What we need to do is to constantly improve our production capacity and adapt to this' quick reaction 'model." Xiong Li said, "When you focus on one thing, when you do it well, there is hope."

Lu Liangtian, president of Foshan Children's Articles Association, said that in the Foshan children's wear industry chain alone, thousands of factories began to cooperate with the Xiyin platform. At the same time, more and more enterprises cooperate with other cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Pang Runwo, chairman of Foshan Xiangweirun Textile Co., Ltd., is a generation of entrepreneurs in Zhangcha knitting industry, and has witnessed the history of Foshan Zhangcha knitting industry from weak to strong. Now, he began to think deeply about how to continue the vitality of this industry.

"In the future, we should walk on multiple legs and not stick to the field of OEM." Pang Runwo said that OEM is still important for the survival of enterprises and cannot be abandoned, but it is not enough for enterprises to only have production capacity, and they also need to have the ability to connect with the market. "If an enterprise cannot connect with the market, it is equivalent to that a strong man has no eyes and is easily strangled by his opponent."

Pang Runwo is planning to build a "one-stop" production line from knitting to printing and dyeing, clothing and brands: "We must work hard on supporting and innovating the industrial chain, and rely on generations of people to continue to work hard."

"Since 2017, we felt that the foreign market was not quite right, so we began to transform into the domestic market. This transformation is very difficult, and if we don't advance, we will go back." Zhang Yinfang, general manager of Foshan Ruianthracan Garments Co., Ltd., said that at present, the transformation of the enterprise has been successful, and it has also become the core supplier of the Li Ning brand. "We used to be a foreign trade oriented enterprise with foreign orders accounting for up to 80%, but now the proportion has dropped to about 10%."

"In recent years, the proportion of our equipment exports has increased year by year, from 10% a few years ago to about 40% now." Zhang Weiwei, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Sanji Precision Technology (Guangdong) Co., Ltd., said that clothing consumption is a huge market, and as long as we adapt to international changes, we will always find a way out.

Robot gradually replaces traditional workers and becomes the main force on the textile assembly line Photographed by Liu Hongyu

　　 Try to develop differently and avoid homogenization

Experts analyzed that although the international market volatility has intensified and domestic difficulties and challenges still exist, textile and clothing, as a traditional industry, is an important support for the economy and people's livelihood because of its large scale, broad market demand and strong ability to absorb employment. Therefore, it is of great significance to enhance risk resistance and achieve high-quality development of the industry.

"Some countries have adopted discriminatory policies to trace the source of materials or conduct genetic testing on Chinese textiles in an attempt to strangle China's livelihood industry, which is doomed to fail." An industry insider told the semimonthly reporter that many textile enterprises, under the pressure of the international situation, have increased their research and development efforts in new materials and other technologies, or actively move towards the high-end of the international industry chain.

Image generated by AI

In view of the phenomenon of domestic market involution, many textile enterprises said that the era of low-end competition is outdated, and originality, branding, and technology are the future development direction. "Try to develop differently and avoid homogenization," said a person in charge of a garment manufacturer.

"No matter what the wind blows in the world, we always believe that China's textile industry will not collapse." Pang Runwo said that the textile industry is an important livelihood industry with strong vitality. (Half month talk reporter Liu Hongyu)