While most county-level textile clusters are still hesitating between capacity expansion and homogeneous competition, Qiyang has delivered a strikingly different answer: 159 textile enterprises, an industrial output value of 8.094 billion yuan, and a 60% domestic market share in umbrella fabric. More notably, this county-level city in southern Hunan is attempting to convert its scale advantage into value-chain control, a path that offers a reference for similar clusters nationwide.
Background
Qiyang's textile industry did not start with a silver spoon. In 2012, Dongjun Textile was merely a small grey fabric processing plant covering less than 100 mu with just over 100 employees. Over a decade later, the company operates 4,800 high-speed water-jet looms, with an annual output exceeding 1 billion meters and a 60% domestic market share in umbrella fabric. It has also built five DMF & toluene recovery towers, achieving near-zero waste gas emissions. Dongjun's growth is not an isolated case; it mirrors the cluster's evolution from scattered factories to a cohesive ecosystem.
By 2025, Qiyang had gathered 159 textile enterprises, including 41 above-scale firms and 25 specialized, innovative, or high-tech companies. The industry's total output value accounted for 17.94% of the city's industrial total. From 2023 to 2025, the average annual growth rate of industrial output was approximately 11.5%. Baishui Textile Town has become the only textile-featured industrial town in Hunan Province, and the functional fabric cluster was recognized as a national-level SME characteristic industrial cluster. These figures underscore a decade of sustained chain-based investment attraction and tiered cultivation.
Industry Impact
A notable feature of the Qiyang cluster is its 'strong middle, weak ends' structure. The midstream weaving segment operates about 6,300 air-jet and water-jet looms, with an annual capacity of 1 billion meters for umbrella fabric and 300 million meters each for bag and tent fabric. However, upstream raw materials like nylon are underdeveloped, and downstream high-value outdoor products are scarce, squeezing profit margins and increasing vulnerability. This structural imbalance becomes more acute amid the rising outdoor economy—demand for functional fabrics is strong, but without downstream extension, the cluster remains at the 'fabric-selling' stage.
Qiyang's locational advantages offer a breakthrough opportunity. Comprehensive factor costs are over 10% lower than in coastal textile hubs, and the city is integrated into the Pearl River Delta's three-hour economic circle, with the first county-level customs service station in Yongzhou. This enables Qiyang to attract coastal orders on cost grounds and develop flexible supply chains leveraging its proximity. Nevertheless, gaps in auxiliary materials, public testing, and industrial design services remain critical bottlenecks to climbing the value chain.