An industry annual conference in July 2026 exposed the deep pains and structural opportunities the hygiene products industry is experiencing. The annual meeting of the Health and Maternal & Baby Products Branch of CNITA, along with the first Absorption Care and Hygiene Products Conference, was held in Shanghai. The core signal released at the conference was that the industry has bid farewell to the extensive expansion of the past decade and officially entered the deep water marked by 'systemic innovation'.
Overcapacity and Technological Breakthroughs in Parallel
At the conference, multiple industry leaders frankly acknowledged that the industry is facing a demand ceiling due to demographic shifts, with overcapacity and market involution becoming the norm. However, it is under this pressure that technological breakthroughs have accelerated. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, substantial progress was made in bio-based absorbent materials, ultra-thin cores, fine-denier nonwovens, intelligent products, and functional finishing technologies. Industry observers pointed out that technological innovation is shifting from single-link breakthroughs to a full-chain systemic upgrade covering raw materials, equipment, processes, and products. This means that in the next five years, companies relying solely on scale expansion will struggle to survive; only those mastering core technologies and achieving industrial chain synergy can ride out the cycle.
Equipment Side: The Critical Leap from Automation to Intelligence
Equipment manufacturers' voices at the conference were particularly noteworthy. Trützschler's new generation carding machine NCX/NCTX directly targets the core pain points of hot air production lines: uneven web, cumbersome cleaning of arc plates, long downtime, and raw material waste. This model achieves significant breakthroughs in carding capacity, output increase, and uptime. Combined with a hot air oven specifically designed for hygiene materials, it improves product bulkiness and consistency while ensuring efficient production. Andritz's wet-laid flushable solution targets the green trend in maternal and infant care; its neXformer dual diffuser system achieves optimal fiber dispersion at high speeds, with an annual capacity of 16,000 tons. Shanghai Songchuan Fengguan's complete intelligent packaging solution boosts production speed to 1,500 pieces per minute while addressing long-standing issues like product misalignment and packaging material waste. These equipment-side advancements are providing downstream factories with the leap from 'usable' to 'efficient' to 'intelligent'.
Channel Revolution: Content E-commerce and Instant Retail Reshape Consumer Linkages
Another major focus of the conference was channel transformation. Representatives from Douyin E-commerce and Xiaohongshu pointed out that the decision-making process of the new generation of parents has shifted from traditional search-based shopping to content-driven and scenario-triggered purchasing. Short videos and live streaming have become core decision-making arenas; brands need to focus on niche scenario needs and strengthen the visual expression of quality and ingredients. Xiaohongshu emphasized that the key to maternal and infant marketing is not exposure volume but whether the right content reaches the right consumer group at the right time. During the roundtable discussion, enterprise representatives debated whether instant retail will become the mainstream channel. One retailer noted that the warehouse-store integration model is reshaping the value of physical stores, and new windows for Chinese maternal and infant companies to go global have emerged due to channel changes. For suppliers, this means not only focusing on the product itself but also helping downstream customers understand and adapt to new traffic distribution logic.
Fibers and Raw Materials: Green and Differentiation as New Competitive Dimensions
Discussions on the raw material side also reflected the deep logic of industry upgrading. Representatives from Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber, Hengyi Petrochemical, Xinfengming Group, Lenzing Fiber, Jiangsu Huaxicun, and Tangshan Sanyou exchanged views on raw material safety and environmental upgrades, fiber consumption trends, and user experience. Lyocell fiber development and bio-based raw material application became high-frequency terms. Industry analysts believe that as consumers increasingly demand product safety and environmental attributes, raw material differentiation will become an important source of brand premium. Meanwhile, technological progress in spunmelt nonwovens and hot-air nonwovens offers more possibilities for product differentiation.