One out of every five sweaters globally is produced in Dalang, Dongguan, a wool knitting cluster with an annual transaction value exceeding 72 billion yuan and an annual garment output surpassing 900 million pieces. On June 24, the 95th International Wool Textile Congress opened here. In his keynote speech, Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), delivered a pivotal judgment: the wool textile industry is transforming from a continuation of a classic sector into a growth engine driven by new technology, new consumption, and new culture.
Scale Foundation and Innovation Leap
Data from CNTAC shows China's textile industry processes over 60 million tons of fiber annually and produces more than 70 billion garments per year, accounting for over 50% of the global share in both categories. Exports have exceeded $300 billion for six consecutive years, with strong shipments of intermediate goods like chemical fibers and fabrics providing critical support for global supply chain stability.
But scale is not the whole story. R&D investment intensity among above-scale enterprises rose from 1% at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 1.3% in 2024. The number of national-level manufacturing innovation centers, key laboratories, and enterprise technology centers now exceeds 110. High-performance fiber capacity accounts for over one-third of the global total, with applications extending into aerospace, marine engineering, and other high-end manufacturing sectors. This means China's textile industry is no longer merely a 'world factory' but is becoming a solution provider for global industrial upgrading.
Smart Manufacturing Reshapes Cost and Efficiency
Digital transformation is altering the production function of the textile industry. The key process digitalization rate across the sector has reached 63.2%, higher than the national manufacturing average. In 2024, 30 textile enterprises were included in the list of 5G factories. Take the 'Lighthouse Factory' of Jiangsu Yueda Textile as an example: smart manufacturing reduced labor per 10,000 spindles by about 70%, increased total labor productivity by more than four times, lowered unit energy consumption by 15%, and cut processing costs by 26%. Semir's AI-assisted design system boosted overall design R&D efficiency by 35%, with pattern design efficiency improving over 200%. Bosideng's 'AI Aesthetic Brain' reduced sample development costs by over 60%.
These cases reveal a core trend: the competitive focus in textiles is shifting from labor costs to 'Token efficiency'—the combined efficiency of data, computing power, and manufacturing under human-machine collaboration. Companies like Anoky are already building full-chain ecosystems from dyes to AI design, hinting at a fundamental change in future corporate cost structures.
Consumption Fragmentation and Experience Economy
Global consumer markets are characterized by ecological restructuring, a return to human-centric values, and structural polarization. Consumers are increasingly stratified, segmented, and categorized. Health and wellness, emotional connection, and self-expression have become core demands. What does this mean for the wool industry? The combination of natural fibers' eco-friendly attributes, health concepts, and digital technology precisely addresses this trend. The congress theme, 'Smart Weaving the Future: Wool's Health and Digital Life,' is not an empty slogan but a precise capture of consumption upgrades.
Meanwhile, the global 'one-person company' and 'handcraft economy' are booming. In the first half of 2025 alone, the number of newly registered individual businesses in China grew by 47% year-on-year. This surge in micro-entities is creating new demands for flexible supply chains, small-batch customization, and rapid response. For a wool industry long reliant on large-volume orders, this presents both a challenge and a structural opportunity.
Industry Impact and Regional Response
Dalang, as an industry cluster sample, has a bellwether reaction. With annual transactions exceeding 72 billion yuan, it concentrates a large number of small and medium-sized wool knitting enterprises. The signals from the congress—a shift from scale expansion to dual engines of intelligence and experience—will directly influence these companies' investment directions. It is foreseeable that in the next two years, Dalang and similar clusters will accelerate the adoption of AI design, intelligent quality inspection, and flexible manufacturing equipment.
But transformation is not without pain. From January to April 2025, operating revenue of above-scale textile enterprises fell 0.3% year-on-year, while total profit surged 19.3%. This divergence—slightly lower revenue but sharply higher profits—precisely shows that companies that have completed smart upgrades are eating the market share of lagging capacity. Internal industry polarization is intensifying.
Practical Recommendations
For Buyers - Prioritize suppliers that have implemented smart manufacturing upgrades; their cost structures are more transparent and delivery schedules more controllable, reducing long-term cooperation risks. - Include AI-assisted design capabilities in supplier evaluation; this directly impacts new product development speed and market responsiveness. - Favor factories with green certifications (e.g., waterless dyeing, digital printing) to meet increasingly stringent environmental compliance requirements in European and American markets.
For Factories - Immediately initiate digital transformation in key areas, prioritizing AI quality inspection and intelligent production scheduling; the payback period for these investments is typically 12–18 months. - Establish flexible production lines for small batches and multiple varieties to capture fragmented orders from 'one-person companies' and independent designers. - Monitor the maturity of 'digital employees' and 'humanoid robots,' and plan for workforce structure transformation over the next 3–5 years.
Conclusion
The 95th International Wool Textile Congress was both an industry gathering and a strategic calibration. As scale dividends peak, China's textile industry is finding a new growth curve through intelligence and experience. For every enterprise involved, the key question is not whether to change, but how fast it can change.