One out of every five sweaters globally is produced in Dalang, Dongguan. This wool-knitting town now produces over 900 million garments annually, with a total supply chain transaction value exceeding 72 billion yuan. At the recently concluded 95th International Wool Textile Conference, these figures became key footnotes in a speech by Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, outlining the anchor position of China's textile industry in the global supply chain.
The Industry Foundation: Where Certainty Comes From
China's textile industry maintains a solid scale advantage. Annual fiber processing volume exceeds 60 million tons, and annual garment production surpasses 70 billion pieces, both accounting for over 50% of the global total. With exports exceeding 300 billion USD for six consecutive years, China is not only the world's largest textile and apparel producer but also a critical supplier of intermediate goods. Strong exports of chemical fibers and fabrics provide substantial support for the stable operation of global supply chains.
Operational data from the first few months of this year shows no weakening of industry resilience. From January to April, revenue of enterprises above designated size fell 0.3% year-on-year, but total profit rose 19.3% against the trend, with a profit margin of 2.9%. This suggests progress in cost control and product value addition. Retail sales of apparel, footwear, hats, and textiles at units above the designated limit increased 8.1% year-on-year during the same period, with the domestic market providing a buffer. From January to May, textile and apparel exports grew 0.1%, with textile exports up 1.7% and apparel exports down 1.6%, indicating a shift in trade structure towards intermediate goods.
Industry Upgrade: The Leap from Manufacturing to Smart Manufacturing
Technological innovation is becoming a new engine of growth. R&D investment intensity for enterprises above designated size has risen from 1% at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 1.3% in 2024. The numbers of national-level manufacturing innovation centers, key laboratories, and enterprise technology centers have reached 2, 5, and 105 respectively. High-performance fiber capacity accounts for over one-third of the global total, with applications expanding from traditional textiles to high-end manufacturing sectors like aerospace and ocean engineering.
The penetration rate of smart manufacturing deserves attention. The digitalization rate of key links in the industry has reached 63.2%, higher than the national manufacturing average. In 2024, 30 textile enterprises were included in the 5G factory list. A typical case is Jiangsu Yueda Textile's 'Lighthouse Factory', which reduced labor per 10,000 spindles by about 70%, increased total labor productivity by over four times, reduced unit energy consumption by 15%, and lowered processing costs by 26%. This data demonstrates that smart manufacturing is no longer a concept but a practical means of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Applications of AI-assisted design at Semir and Bosideng have increased design efficiency by 35% and reduced sample development costs by over 60%, further validating the commercial value of technology implementation.
New Paradigms: The Dual Impact of Intelligent and Experience Economies
The global textile industry is facing structural reshaping. The IMF has lowered its global economic growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1%, and factors such as geopolitical conflicts, energy volatility, and financial tightening have increased market uncertainty to a high point in recent years. In this context, the industry needs to find a way out from two dimensions.
The intelligent economy is changing the underlying logic of production and organization. The global AI market is expected to reach 757.58 billion USD in 2025, up 18.7% year-on-year. The development of intelligent agents is driving the batch deployment of 'digital employees', and IDC predicts that billions of AI Agents will enter the work system by 2030. For textile enterprises, this means a full-chain restructuring from design to production to management. Anuoqi's layout of computing power AI, building an industrial ecology 'from dyes to digital printing to AI design and IP cultural creation', is a microcosm of the industry's proactive embrace of the intelligent economy.
The rise of the experience economy requires enterprises to respond more precisely to consumer demands. Consumer stratification is obvious, with health, emotional connection, and self-expression becoming core demands. Social media accelerates information generation and dissemination, and product discovery and decision-making are increasingly intelligent. This places higher demands on branding—the global popularity of 'Guochao' (national trends) and the inclusion of brands like Anta and SHEIN in the world's top 500 brands indicate that Chinese brands are adapting to this change.