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 Zibo 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. This year, the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology formulated and issued the “Modern Light Textile Industry 2022 Action Plan”, which ushered in new development opportunities for the textile and garment industry.
Technology empowers leading geese to lead the way
Under the adverse influence of the international environment and other adverse effects, Zibo textile enterprises have shown strong performance development resilience and move 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, Lutai 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 instead of sewing. The strength of the seams is higher than that of the seams, subverting the traditional production model. “Technological innovation is the driving force of development.” Liu Zibin feels 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. “Intelligent direction is the only way for us to go.” Liu Linming, general manager of Hengli Textile, said that it has overcome many of the world’s key “stuck neck” technologies, and the high-end environmentally friendly functional fabrics developed and produced are full of technology and are known as ” “Air-conditioning fabric” has many special functions such as light-shielding and heat preservation, rainproof and breathable, UV protection, and flame retardant. Hengli has established cooperative relationships with world-renowned companies such as French Decathlon, American Columbia, and Swedish IKEA. 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 enterprises. At present, Qilu Petrochemical Acrylic Fiber Factory is the only dry-process acrylic fiber enterprise in the country; Yinshilai is the largest jacquard fabric manufacturer in the country; Dyefang Group is the largest silk weaving, printing, bleaching and dyeing enterprise in Jiangbei.
Leading companies lead the way and have strong technological support. Five projects in Zibo’s textile industry have passed Shandong Province’s scientific and technological achievements appraisal at or above the ministerial level, 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; national-level industrial design There are 2 centers, accounting for 1/6 of the country’s total, which have solved the key technical problems of “stuck neck” and promoted the overall improvement of the competitiveness of the textile industry.
Innovation support clusters
Zibo City’s textile and clothing industry has a profound heritage and a development history of more than 3,000 years. It is a dominant traditional industry , named as one of the three major industrial clusters by China Textile Federation.
Anyone familiar with the textile industry knows that the textile industry is a highly competitive industry, and cruel elimination and reshuffle 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 European and American orders poured in, and many domestic textile companies were content with OEM production and ignored technological updates. 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 in the exhibits in foreign silk museums, we couldn’t be more excited.” Chen Lu, chairman of Dyeing House, said with emotion. The silk industry in Zhoucun began to rise in the mid-Ming Dynasty. By the early 1930s, It has become the center of Shandong’s silk industry. “The fields are full of mulberry trees, every household is raising silkworms, the sound of machines can be heard every step of the way, and every household is weaving silk and satin.” This folk song vividly depicts the mulberry trees in Zhoucun, known as the “Hometown of Silk.” The prosperity of silk weaving industry. At present, Dyeingfang is still in the process of timeThe glory of silk in the past continues in the river.
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 company with complete capabilities in self-reeling, weaving, printing and dyeing, home textile products, cultural and creative products, clothing and accessories, and domestic and foreign trade. Silk enterprises in the industrial chain.
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-garments- The full-cycle textile industry chain of “trade”; one 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 19.7%; profit was 710 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 139.6%.
Digital transformation enters the blue ocean
Faced with narrowing profit margins, bottlenecks in human resources, and loss of overseas orders Waiting for the current situation, where is the “outlet” of the textile industry? Where is the “blue ocean”? Previously, the 2022 Digital Empowerment Real Economy Shandong Tour came to Zibo, and more than 70 light textile companies in Zibo City discussed digital transformation 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.” Ma Xueqiang, chairman of Shandong Shanniu Intelligent 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.
Zhang Baonian, chairman of Zibo Hongye Textile, who has been working in the textile industry for 23 years, has a deep understanding of the value brought by digital transformation. Zhang Baonian said that both the prospects and challenges of clothing development come from the rapidly changing market demand. Labor costs are high and the industry is aging year by year, which has led to the transfer of large-volume orders to Southeast Asia. Replacing labor with advanced automation equipment and replacing the existing traditional management model with leading digital and information management is the only way to gradually transform from a labor-intensive industry to a technology-intensive industry.
“Through digital transformation and upgrading, we have solved the problems of high flexibility, high production costs for small batch orders, inability to share data between departments, and disconnection between hardware and software systems.” Zhang Baonian said that in the new Through the exploration and practice of business models, Hongye Textile is not limited to OEM for brands such as Uniqlo. The future direction is to strive to lead the trend in the clothing industry and strive towards personalized high-end customization of fashionable jeans “Made by Hongye”.
“We and Shandong University of Arts and Crafts plan to establish a digital R&D and design institution to promote the in-depth integration of industry, academia and research, and create a strong joint platform between schools and enterprises.” Zhang Baonian said that Hongye Textile not only targets the digital transformation and upgrading of the clothing industry We will conduct in-depth research and high-level integration, and we will also jointly discuss and research on technology research and development, product development, intelligent manufacturing, design practice, new media, optimization of industry resources, etc. in the industrial chain.
From the perspective of Lutai people, digital platformization has been integrated into the blood and engraved in the bones. The “Lu Thai+” large design platform created by Lu Thai Textile, which integrates Eastern culture and Western art, uses the “National Industrial Design Center” as the platform and establishes branches or offices in cities such as New York, USA, and Milan, Italy. Give full play to the platform advantages of global fashion cutting-edge, and ultimately gain dominance in the industry chain and voice in the value chain.
The wave of digitalization is sweeping across the country, and more and more companies like Lu Thai and Hongye Textile are embracing digitalization with platform thinking. Only when enterprises seize new opportunities in digital development and promote digital transformation and innovation can they accelerate the high-quality development of the light industrial textile industry and help enterprises spin out the “Red Ocean” and intelligently enter the “Blue Ocean”.
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