Cloth merchants gather! On the occasion of the 2024 Keqiao Textile Expo and the World Cloth Merchants Conference, we will explore the vigorous vitality of the "International Textile Capital", walk on the streets of Keqiao District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and see the city image advertisements of "International Textile, Star Linking Hangzhou & Shaoxing" everywhere.

This "city on cloth" has gathered more than 8,000 textile enterprises. The well-known China Textile City has more than 38,000 market operators, more than 50,000 kinds of fabrics sold, and a daily market flow of more than 100,000 people.

Now, Keqiao has ushered in an annual textile industry event - 2024 The 26th Keqiao Textile Expo (Autumn), Shaoxing China, the 7th World Cloth Merchants Conference in 2024, and the 2024 Keqiao Fashion Design Exhibition (Autumn) and a series of activities are intensively staged.

The series of activities attracted more than 800 exhibitors, including 30 overseas enterprises and more than 30 international textile industry associations, with a total of more than 2,200 booths, a record high.

What surprises the industry is that the attractiveness of the Keqiao Textile Expo and the World Cloth Merchants Conference relies on Keqiao's unique textile printing and dyeing cluster.

"Go to Keqiao Textile Expo, Seek for New Trading Opportunities". From the upstream polyester fiber and chemical fiber raw materials, to the weaving, dyeing and finishing in the midstream, to the downstream clothing, home textile and textile markets, as well as the creative design, service trade, inspection and testing throughout the entire industrial chain, Keqiao has a complete industrial chain and a mature market sales system. At present, the annual output value of Keqiao textile industry exceeds 130 billion yuan, and "Keqiao Textile" has also become the first regional brand worth more than 100 billion yuan in the domestic textile industry.

Although the economic environment in 2024 is more complicated, according to the "Keqiao Textile Industry Development Achievement Report" released by the 7th World Cloth Merchants Conference, from January to September this year, the industrial output value of Keqiao textile industry still achieved a year-on-year growth of more than 10%.

When the industry is prosperous, people gather. On the occasion of the Keqiao Textile Expo, the reporter went deep into the Keqiao industrial cluster to explore the source of the surging vitality of the "International Textile Capital".

Precise and focused, the cloth industry will always have a market

An entrepreneur once analyzed the characteristics of Keqiao enterprises: although most of the Keqiao textile printing and dyeing industry clusters are small and medium-sized enterprises, they have always maintained strong competitiveness. The mystery lies in the fact that many entrepreneurs in Keqiao realize that only by focusing on subdivisions can they break through in the fierce competition.

"In many countries, rayon calico is not only used to make clothes, tablecloths, and wall coverings, but also as gifts for visiting relatives and friends." Shaoxing Yongtong Printing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yongtong Printing) General Manager Zhang Jianmu said.

After taking over the company from his father in 2008, Zhang Jianmu slashed other businesses, which accounted for about 30% of the company's revenue at the time, to focus on rayon printing.

Zhang Jianmu said that focusing on a single category is to achieve the ultimate in refined management. He did an arithmetic problem in front of reporters: "Now the average amount of pulp per meter of cloth is about 122 grams, and the cost of white pulp is about 4 yuan a kilogram." My daily output is 800,000 meters, and if I save 1 gram of nail size per meter of cloth, I can save 800 kilograms a day, about 3,200 yuan. According to 300 effective working days a year, more than 900,000 yuan can be saved. "Save more costs, more competition costs.

At that time, there was no powerful management software, Zhang Jianmu used Excel files to record the operation of the enterprise, and once a problem was found, it was rectified within 48 hours.

"This is my 'kung fu secret'. The value of 1 cent of work is calculated every day, and all data such as steam, dyeing and chemical materials are accurate to 4 decimal places. Zhang Jianmu said. Today, the MES production intelligent manufacturing management system jointly developed by Yongtong Printing and Xi'an Polytechnic University has completed the copyright registration. In order to deepen and refine the rayon printing, in 2024, Yongtong Printing will launch 4 rayon digital printing production lines and develop two functional rayon fabrics.

Yongtong Printing signed up to participate in the 6th Textile New Materials Exhibition held at the same time as the Textile Expo. "The margins of traditional processes are getting thinner and thinner, and new processes and functional fabrics can bring higher added value to enterprises." Zhang Jianmu said.

Similar to Yongtong Printing's deep involvement in the rayon printing business, Shaoxing Qianyong Textile Co., Ltd. is known for focusing on the digital jet printing market segment of functional nylon fabrics.

In 2022, Qianyong Textile was selected as a uniform equipment production and supply chain enterprise for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics. In this year's Paris Olympics, the clothing fabric prints of the Chinese delegation and the Canadian delegation are all from Qianyong Textile.

At the beginning, the Beijing Winter Olympics uniforms were selected from a world-renowned fabric manufacturer of renewable carbon fiber nylon fabrics, but the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee and fabric manufacturers searched all over the country, but did not find a suitable digital printing factory. Eventually, on the recommendation of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, they dialed Xiao Xingshui, the head of Qianyong Textile.

Xiao Xingshui was originally a cloth merchant who traded in the China Textile City. More than 10 years ago, he learned that a company in Shandong had developed nylon digital printing technology, and took the initiative to seek cooperation.

"Originally, only Japanese companies have mastered this technology, and a printed down jacket can be sold for more than 10,000 yuan." Xiao Xingshui, who has a keen sense of smell in the market, purchased equipment from that company in Shandong and built his own production line. Qianyong textile made a brilliant debut.

At present, Qianyong Textile is the designated supplier of digital direct printing fabrics for domestic and foreign sports brands such as Anta, Lululemon, and North Face.

If the main business that has been focused on for many years falls into the quagmire of price war, can enterprises still capture the spring of the market? Keqiao's Zhejiang Meisheng New Materials Co., Ltd. gave its own answer.

In 1998, Qian Guochun and his brothers started a business to produce and sell suede fabrics, but soon encountered a price war.

Qian Guochun went abroad to investigate and found a microfiber suede fabric that had almost no competitors in China. He invested 130 million yuan to introduce equipment and technical personnel. According to Zhu Haifeng, the executive director of Meisheng, the company's suede home textile fabric business peaked around 2011, but with the influx of a large number of imitators in the market, the company once again fell into a price war.

Faced with the choice of "continuing to compete in the red ocean" or "looking for a new blue ocean market", in 2017, Qian Guochun decided to transform and develop microfiber imitation suede materials for automotive interiors, but the threshold for entering the automotive industry is not low. After 3 years of tackling key problems and persisting for 3 years, in 2020, Meisheng New Materials finally ushered in the opportunity to enter the automotive industry.

In recent years, the rapid development of the domestic new energy vehicle industry has provided Meisheng with a stage of "the advantage of being in a favored position". At present, Meisheng's microfiber imitation suede materials have entered the supply chain of Tesla, BYD, Li Auto Inc and many other car companies. "Our goal is to become a benchmark in the automotive interior industry." Qian Neng, vice chairman of the company, said.

Behind the outstanding performance of Keqiao textile enterprises, Keqiao District has vigorously implemented the printing and dyeing industry agglomeration and upgrading project around the positioning of "green high-end and world-leading", and has built the largest green printing and dyeing base in the country; Focusing on the goal of "innovation and change, science and technology empowerment", we have comprehensively deepened industry-university-research cooperation, established the largest modern textile technology innovation center in China, introduced a total of 12 first-class teams, 160 scientific and technological projects, and 12 achievements won the China Textile Federation Science and Technology Award.

Go to the "new" and break the ceiling of traditional industries

The theme of this year's World Cloth Merchants Conference is "Fashion Realm, New Quality Future". The traditional Keqiao textile printing and dyeing industry is accelerating the development of high-end, high-efficiency and high-quality by accelerating digital, networked and intelligent transformation.

Six years ago, Xu Chengjun moved to the Blue Print Fashion Town at the mouth of the Cao'e River with Zhejiang Yuexin Printing and Dyeing Company. It is the largest concentration of printing and dyeing textile industry in Asia, accounting for about one-third of the country's printing and dyeing production capacity, and trucks carrying textile fabrics are flowing all day long.

Xu Chengjun is a dyeing supervisor who has grown up as a dyeing operator. In the office, he turned on the computer and checked the dyeing process list of the No. 21 dye vat, which clearly showed the process curve record of the equipment, and the data such as temperature, rate, and holding time were clear at a glance.

Xu Chengjun gave instructions to each dye vat through the computer: "After the intelligent transformation, the amount of additives is more accurate, which not only saves costs, but also reduces the defective rate by at least 20%. "He said.

In 2020, Yuexin Company launched the intelligent transformation of the factory. Pu Jianfeng, chairman of the company, said that the longer you run the enterprise, the more you can feel the boundaries of ability. If you want the company to continue to grow bigger and stronger, you must change the traditional way of production management.

Printing and dyeing is a labor-intensive industry. The same process, another person to operate, the quality of the product may vary greatly. Pu Jianfeng hopes to store the process and experience of experienced veteran technicians into the system, and try to eliminate the interference of human factors.

"Now that we've only done local optimization, we're still a long way from a truly smart factory." Pu Jianfeng said frankly.

"I once thought that the ceiling of the industry was here, but intelligent manufacturing has pointed out a new path for the development of enterprises - even traditional industries such as printing and dyeing may become advanced manufacturing." Pu Jianfeng said.

Back in the early 1990s, Shaoxing County, the predecessor of Keqiao District, took the lead in promoting the "shuttleless technological transformation" and "dyeing and finishing revolution", which opened up the way for the technological transformation of textile enterprises. Nowadays, more and more upstream and downstream enterprises in Keqiao are marching towards intelligent manufacturing.

On the automatic packaging line of Keqiao Hengming Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd., the robotic arm flies up and down, sending a roll of chemical fiber filament to the assembly line, and automatically completing the detection, wrapping, packaging and storage of three-dimensional warehouses that should be operated manually.

Cao Xuean, deputy general manager of the company, introduced that Hengming Chemical Fiber not only upgraded the original 800,000-ton device, but also built a new 600,000-ton functional intelligent manufacturing fiber project, and finally formed an annual production capacity of 1.4 million tons of differentiated fiber.

In the downstream of the industrial chain, Zhejiang XiaoXuanChuang Household Fabric Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as XiaoXuanChuang), located in Fuquan Street, regards intelligent manufacturing as the key to enhancing the company's core competitiveness.

Zhang Jianlan, general manager of the company, said that as a curtain company, Xiaoxuan Window relied on exquisite tulle embroidery technology to win the market in the early years, but as competitors continued to follow the trend and imitate, the company's development encountered a bottleneck.

"Although there are many new concepts such as 'formaldehyde removal' on the market, the industry is still mainly fighting for style and cost performance." Zhang Jianlan said.

As local labor costs continue to rise, some peers choose to "go to sea" to set up factories, while Xiaoxuan Window currently has no plans to "go to sea". Zhou Guoxuan, chairman of the company, believes that the introduction of automation equipment is the key to reducing costs and increasing efficiency and breaking the bottleneck of development. Despite the controversy within the company, Zhou Guoxuan insisted on taking this step.

According to the "Keqiao Textile Industry Development Achievement Report", the proportion of international advanced equipment application in Keqiao textile printing and dyeing industry cluster has reached more than 60%, and the average tax per mu exceeds 250,000 yuan.

In the fierce market competition, Keqiao textile industry is gradually transforming to an advanced manufacturing industry with higher technology content and stronger innovation vitality. The driving force behind the transformation is not only the company's own innovation drive, but also the empowerment of regional technology innovation platforms.

In July 2022, Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center and Jianhu Laboratory jointly built by Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and Keqiao District were established. Qi Dongming, deputy director of the center, introduced that the innovation center will conquer the core technology on the one hand, serve the needs of the industry on the other hand, and focus on building four major R&D systems of advanced preparation technology of fiber materials, high-end textile and ecological dyeing and finishing technology, textile intelligent manufacturing and advanced composite materials, and future textile technology, so as to empower the development of enterprises in the whole link.

Keqiao has also built the first collaborative innovation center for engineers in the national textile industry, attracting 73,000 engineers and serving nearly 10,000 enterprises.

Look at the world and keep up with the new fashion trends

At the beginning of September this year, the works of 5 designers who cooperated with Keqiao fabric enterprises were unveiled at the 2025 Spring and Summer China International Fashion Week in Beijing on the Keqiao Fashion Release Day. A few days later, Milan Fashion Week "Keqiao Day" and the 2025 Spring/Summer New Product Launch Conference were held in Milan, Italy. The fabrics used in the designers' works at the conference are all from local textile enterprises in Keqiao.

"The same fabric is developed in different markets to work very differently." Ding Haiqin, head of Shaoxing Zhongtong Textile Co., Ltd., said. Zhongtong Textile, which integrates industry and trade, is mainly engaged in leisure and fast reverse products. The trip to Italy gave Ding Haiqin, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years, a deeper understanding of the relationship between fashion and ingenuity.

As the core area of China's textile industry, Keqiao adheres to the international fashion trend. Designer Shi Yan pointed out that one of Keqiao's major advantages is a conscious and continuous international vision.

At the 2024 Keqiao Fashion Week (Autumn) launched on October 23, international fashion exchanges are still one of the key points. Internationally renowned designers, including Malaysian Chinese designer Jimmy Choo, have collaborated with local fabric companies to release new products, further promoting the deep integration of Keqiao and the global fashion industry.

Yuan Xiaowen believes that if Keqiao fabric enterprises want to improve their quality and upgrade, they must "learn more and see more". The Keqiao government has built an international exchange platform to go out and invite in, hoping to inspire local enterprises.

"In the final analysis, the vitality of industrial clusters comes from enterprises. The government has to play a role where businesses can't do it. Yuan Xiaowen said.

In recent years, Keqiao has introduced high-end platforms such as the Sino-Italian Future Fashion Innovation Center, the District Textile Industry Creative Design Center, and the first batch of national textile and garment creative design demonstration parks, with a design service revenue of 379 million yuan in 2022.

Relying on activities such as Fashion Week, "Everyday Fashion" and "Keqiao Preferred", Keqiao is constantly building a fashion creative industry ecosystem and enhancing the value chain of Keqiao's textile industry.

Zhejiang Golden Idea Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Golden Idea), a women's clothing fabric company that has participated in the "Keqiao Day" of Milan Fashion Week for two consecutive years, has begun to explore its own brand road.

Having been in the fabric business for half his life, Bi Guangjun, the owner of Jindian Company, said with a smile that his eyes lit up when he saw clothing fabrics: "Walking on the street, I like to observe the material and color matching of other people's clothes, think about what age this fabric is suitable for, and always want to find a little fault." It became an instinctive reaction. ”

"Gone are the days when you could get a season or two with a few patterns. In the past, it was only about quality, but now consumers demand good and cheap. Fabrics are required to be functional, and consumer preferences are varied, and the fight is for design and development capabilities and supply chain integration capabilities. Bi Guangjun said.

"We noticed the industry trend of 'small order fast reverse' very early on, and began to train the team's ability to do fast fashion." Zhao Guomin, general manager of the company, said.

Golden Idea pursues "luxury fast fashion" - while taking into account the cost performance, "luxury" represents the quality of products and services; "Fast" means fast shipment and quick response to the mainstream of the market; "Fashion" stands for guiding customers to develop fashion products with their own product development capabilities.

In 2022, the BICHANGYU brand under the Golden Idea officially opened stores on Tmall and Tiktok, selling women's and men's fashion brands. Bi Guangjun's operating strategy is to enhance the added value of the brand through cross-border cooperation such as fashion.

"Times are changing, and people's pursuit of fashion will not change." Bi Guangjun said.

The optimistic Keqiao people firmly believe that as long as people yearn for a better life, the cloth industry will always be spring.