One in every five sweaters globally comes from Dalang, Dongguan. This wool textile town, with an annual transaction volume exceeding 72 billion yuan, hosted the 95th International Wool Textile Organization Conference on June 24. Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), delivered a keynote speech asserting that the global textile industry is undergoing a dual paradigm shift driven by AI and the experience economy, with China's textile sector providing a critical stabilizing fulcrum.
Data Foundation and Paradigm Shift
China's textile industry remains a ballast for the global supply chain. Public data shows annual fiber processing volume stabilizes at over 60 million tons, with garment output exceeding 70 billion pieces, accounting for more than half of the global share. Exports have surpassed $300 billion for six consecutive years, with strong exports of intermediate goods like chemical fibers and fabrics directly supporting global supply chain continuity. From January to May this year, textile and apparel exports reached $116.73 billion, up 0.1% year-on-year, but with clear structural divergence: textile exports grew 1.7%, while apparel exports fell 1.6%. This pattern of strong intermediates versus weak finished goods suggests downstream brands remain cautious in destocking, while upstream fabric orders show stronger resilience.
However, Sun's speech focused not on past achievements but on two forces reshaping the industry's underlying logic. The first is the intelligent economy. The global AI market reached $757.58 billion in 2025, expected to exceed $900 billion next year. In China, daily token calls have surpassed 140 trillion. Behind these numbers lies AI's deep penetration into the textile value chain: from Semir's AI-assisted design system boosting R&D efficiency by 35% and pattern design efficiency by over 200%, to Yueda Textile's 'Lighthouse Factory' reducing labor per 10,000 spindles by 70% and unit energy consumption by 15%, to Bosideng's 'AI Aesthetic Brain' cutting sample development costs by over 60%. AI is no longer a concept but a direct factor reshaping factory cost structures and brand product development cycles.
The second force is the experience economy. Consumers are increasingly fragmented by tier and category, with health, emotional connection, and self-expression becoming core demands. Social media accelerates information dissemination and decision-making fragmentation. This means brands must shift from 'selling products' to 'selling experiences,' where the environmental attributes of natural fibers intersect with the personalization capabilities of digital technology. The conference theme, 'Weaving the Future with Intelligence: Wool's Health and Digital Life,' precisely responds to this trend.
Industry Landing: The Dalang Sample and Global Collaboration
As a quintessential sample of China's wool textile industry, Dalang's industrial agglomeration itself is a testament to open cooperation. With a full-industry-chain annual transaction volume exceeding 72 billion yuan and garment output exceeding 900 million pieces, these figures represent not just scale but a microcosm of the global wool supply chain's symbiotic development. The conference's location also hints at a new direction for industrial collaboration: not simple capacity transfer, but deep synergy based on technology, branding, and standards.
China's textile industry R&D investment intensity has risen from 1% at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 1.3% in 2024, with two national-level manufacturing innovation centers and five key laboratories established. High-performance fiber capacity accounts for over one-third of the global total, with applications expanding from traditional textiles to high-end manufacturing like aerospace and marine engineering. This indicates a shift from 'scale-driven' to 'technology-driven' growth, moving up the global value chain.
Simultaneously, brand building is accelerating internationally. Anta and SHEIN have entered the world's top 500 brands, while companies like Hengli, Weiqiao, and Erdos are deeply engaging in local value creation through cross-border M&A and global layout. This 'going global' is no longer limited to capacity relocation but represents a full-spectrum export of branding, design, and channels.
Value Anchors Amid Uncertainty
Despite a solid foundation, short-term pressures cannot be ignored. The IMF has downgraded its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.1%, with variables such as geopolitical conflicts, energy fluctuations, and shipping disruptions. From January to April this year, revenue of textile enterprises above designated size fell 0.3% year-on-year, but total profit surged 19.3%, with a profit margin of 2.9%. This 'revenue decline with profit rise' contrast reflects companies preserving profit margins through cost reduction, efficiency gains, and product structure upgrades in a low-growth environment. Investment signals are more complex: fixed asset investment in the textile industry grew 10.8%, while the garment and chemical fiber sectors fell 10.3% and 14.5% respectively. This suggests capital favors smart manufacturing upgrades in the upstream rather than simple capacity expansion downstream.
In his speech, Sun emphasized that the industry must find value anchors and breakthrough paths. The integration of the intelligent and experience economies offers two routes: one through AI and smart manufacturing to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the other through branding and experience to create premiums. These are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.