One out of every five sweaters in China comes from Dalang, Dongguan. This woolen knitting town produces over 900 million garments annually, with its entire supply chain transaction value exceeding 72 billion yuan. But the 95th International Wool Textile Conference sent signals far deeper than these numbers—the global wool industry is undergoing a paradigm revolution driven by technology, consumption, and responsibility.
Weaving the Future: AI Reshapes the Wool Value Chain
The conference theme, 'Intelligent Weaving the Future: Wool's Health and Digital Life,' accurately captures the core of the current industry transformation. AI has evolved from a mere auxiliary tool to a force reshaping the entire design, production, and management chain of the wool industry. R&D investment intensity among China's textile enterprises above designated size rose from 1% in 2020 to 1.3% in 2024, with 112 national-level innovation platforms established. In the wool sector, AI-assisted design systems have boosted design efficiency by over 35% for some firms, with pattern design efficiency increasing by more than 200%.
More notably, smart manufacturing is altering factory labor structures and cost models. Jiangsu Yueda Textile's 'Lighthouse Factory' reduced spindle workers by about 70% through intelligent transformation, while labor productivity quadrupled, unit energy consumption dropped 15%, and processing costs fell 26%. This signals that the traditional advantages of labor and scale are being replaced by algorithms and computing power, shifting cost structures from labor-intensive to technology-capital-intensive.
Health Consumption and Green Responsibility: New Value Anchors for Wool
Consumers' pursuit of health, well-being, and emotional connection is creating new premium space for natural fiber wool. When 'health consumption' and 'green responsibility' overlap, wool's attributes as a renewable, biodegradable natural protein fiber become a key fulcrum for brand storytelling. China's textile industry is accelerating the adoption of advanced green technologies such as waterless dyeing and digital printing, improving resource efficiency across the board.
But challenges are equally pronounced. The IMF has downgraded its 2026 global economic growth forecast to 3.1%. Geopolitical conflicts, energy volatility, and shipping disruptions are compounding market complexity and uncertainty. From January to May 2025, China's textile and apparel exports grew only 0.1%, with apparel exports declining 1.6%. As a key component of apparel exports, the wool category faces similar pressures of demand fragmentation and margin compression.
The Dalang Model: Dual Benefits of Open Cooperation and Industrial Clustering
Dalang's rise epitomizes how China's wool industry integrated into global markets. Behind the statistic 'one in five sweaters globally comes from Dalang' lies the power of open cooperation and industrial agglomeration. The supply chain transaction value exceeding 72 billion yuan indicates a highly coordinated ecosystem spanning raw material sourcing, design, production, and sales. This clustering reduces transaction costs and improves response speed, giving Dalang greater resilience against market fluctuations.
However, clustering advantages are not static. As global supply chain restructuring accelerates, wool production capacity in Southeast Asia and South Asia is rising. China's wool industry must transition from 'scale advantage' to a composite advantage of technology, speed, and brand. Cases of Chinese textile firms 'going global'—such as Hengli, Weiqiao, Erdos, and Shenzhou International—through cross-border M&A and global layout show that relying solely on domestic capacity is insufficient; global resource integration is the key to future competitiveness.