Hubei nonwoven industry:There is still room for brand cultivation

On March 16th， Gao Yong， Party Secretary and Secretary General of China National Textile and Apparel Council （CNTAC）， Li Lingshen， Vice President of CNTAC and other relevant personnel carried out investigation on the non-woven industry in Pengchang Town， Xiantao City.

There are currently 306 non-woven enterprises in Pengchang Town， including 46 enterprises above designated size. In 2017， these enterprises achieved the output value of 13.63 billion yuan， a year-on-year growth of 18.2% and increased by 10.6% from the same period last year； the sales volume was 13.32 billion yuan， a year-on-year growth of 17.7% and increased by 10.2% from the same period last year； the annual output of various nonwoven cloths was 250，000 tons， accounting for 10.2% of the total output in the whole country， and the annual processing quantity of various non-woven products， making up 1/3 of the total export of the country， and the production and marketing quantity ranked first in the country.

Ma Peixiang， Secretary of the Party Committee of Pengchang Town said that a lot of enterprises have already received orders until September at present. He predicted that in 2018， the non-woven industry in Pengchang Town will still realize a relatively high growth and that there still exists the growth room of 20% - 30%.

Non-woven industry is a global sunrise industry， and facing the new situation and new requirements， Pengchang Town will enhance cluster competitiveness in an all-round way， speed up to build a famous one hundred billion-level non-woven industry town with most competitive advantages. He also introduced the work arrangements for Pengchang Town in the next stage： first of all， to focus on business owners and continue to attract investment； moreover， to strengthen support and enhance the momentum of development； and thirdly， to guide innovation and boost high grade and upgrade.

Sun Aimin， General Manager of Hubei Yumin Protective Articles Co.， Ltd. and President of Pengchang Chamber of Commerce gave an introduction to the development situation of enterprises. He mentioned that currently enterprises are faced with the development bottlenecks such as elder operating workers， rising labor costs and difficult recruitment， and he hopes to further improve the level of intelligence and automation of enterprises so as to solve these problems.

At the symposium， Li Lingshen introduced the basic development of the national non-woven industry： last year， enterprises above designated size of the national non-woven industry earned the main business income of 139.6 billion yuan， an increase of 6.7%； last year， enterprises above designated size realized the profit of 8.4 billion yuan， a decline of 1%.

Li Lingshen predicted that the total amount of the industry will continue to grow at a fast rate in the next 10 years. However， he also pointed out that there exists a potential crisis in the development of the non-woven industry in Pengchang， Xiantao， that is， excessive reliance on the international market. He hoped that local governments and enterprises should make full use of the domestic and foreign markets， and do well in intelligent upgrading， green production and other related planning and work.

Gao Yong said in his concluding remarks that spunlace non-woven fabrics were relatively hot last year and may be continuously hot this year. It is understood that in 2018， several enterprises producing spunlace non-woven fabrics were fully booked. At present， there is no problem with the growth of nonwovens， but it is required to think about and pay attention to such issues on how to eliminate old and outmoded capacity and how to maintain economic efficiency. He said， of course， our industry itself is also making some adjustments. For example， after new equipment is put into operation， some old and outmoded capacity will be eliminated naturally， but it seems that the elimination rate of old and outmoded capacity is far slower than that of newly increased production， which may also be one of the reasons for the slowdown in the economic efficiency of our industry.

Gao Yong pointed out that， from the development trend， the industry is bound to advance in the future， but what requires us to arouse alarm and attention is that among numerous product categories in this area， not every category takes on a benign growth， so we must prevent the phenomenon of overheating of individual categories. For example， this situation has appeared in non-woven base cloths. He expressed that at present， medical wiping products are still in the growth stage， but how long can this growth continue？ We should pay due attention to this trend and problem， and take some preventive measures to prevent local overheating.

At the symposium， Gao Yong also suggested that the local government should explore the development planning of the domestic market， strengthen the cultivation of own brands， and give some preferences on relevant supporting policies. Finally， Gao Yong suggested that the local place properly cultivate one or two automatic and intelligent production demonstration lines of medical protective clothing to further accelerate the upgrading pace of Xiantao non-woven industry.

Xiantao Nonwovens Industrial Cluster originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Over 20 years， Xiantao has vigorously promoted the extension of the industrial chain， formed a complete chain that integrates product development， raw material production， product processing， auxiliary material production， equipment manufacturing， packaging and printing， R&D; testing， commodity inspection and clearance， logistics transportation， trading market and talent training， and truly transformed the industrial chain from a single product to a wide， complete chain. At present， there are up to 1011 industrial and commercial non-woven fabric enterprises in the whole city， of which， the citys non-woven industry gathers 98 enterprises above designated size with nearly 100，000 employees， it reaches an annual output of 300，000 tons of various types of non-woven fabrics and annual processing quantity of 800，000 tons of nonwoven fabric products； in 2017， it realized achieved the output value of 31378 million yuan and the direct export of 632 million U.S. dollars， and its export delivery value accounted for 40 % of the countrys total export.

Since 2008， Xiantao Nonwovens Industrial Cluster has been rated as a key growth industry cluster in Hubei Province for eight consecutive years， and selected twice as “Top 100 Competitive County Industrial Clusters in China”. In 2013， Xiantao City was granted the title of “Chinas Non-woven Fabric Industry City” by China National Textile and Apparel Council and China Nonwovens & Textile Industry Associations. In 2014， Pengchang Industrial Zone was renamed “Hubei New Industrial Industrial Demonstration Base”.

Currently， Xiantao non-woven industry is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading， and in order to speed up industrial transformation and upgrading， the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government has formulated the action plan for the development of the nonwoven industry， improved the planning of 330，000-square-kilometer Nonwoven Industry Development Zone， and focused on the industrial development of medical， sanitary nonwovens and products and other industries， and besides， it has made every effort to build the largest nonwoven industrial base in central China with Pengchang Town， namely “national famous non-woven industry town” as the core， and built and perfected five centers such as productivity promotion of nonwovens products， product testing， new material development， logistics trade and exhibition， striving to establish over 200 enterprises above designated size in the non-woven industry in the whole city， cultivated 2 enterprises with the output value of over ten billion， 10 enterprises with the output value of over one billion， 100 enterprises with the output value of over one hundred million yuan and 30 national high-tech enterprises by 2020； reach the annual output of 1 million tons of non-woven fabrics and break through the output value of 100 billion yuan； put forth effort to build National Nonwovens Technology Center， national and provincial industry testing service platforms， constructed the countrys largest non-woven industrial park and create a“global non-woven fabric capital”.