As coastal textile capacity faces rising energy and labor costs, southwestern border regions are leveraging clean energy and port locations to attract a new wave of industrial transfer. On July 21, the Yunnan BHT Textile Co., Ltd. launched a 60,000-ton annual knit fabric project in the Kaiyuan Green Textile Science and Technology Park, with a total investment of 650 million yuan and plans for 20 intelligent production lines. This is not merely an expansion of one company's capacity; it is a critical piece in the construction of a textile supply chain in the southwest aimed at Southeast Asia.
The project investor's parent company is Delaika Textile, one of the 'top ten fabric merchants' in Guangzhou's Zhongda Market, with annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan. The move from Guangzhou to Kaiyuan follows a dual strategy of cost reduction and market expansion. Kaiyuan's abundant clean energy significantly lowers steam and electricity costs, a direct competitive advantage for the energy-intensive knitting and dyeing process. More crucially, Kaiyuan's proximity to Kunming and the Hekou port allows simultaneous access to the domestic and Southeast Asian markets, perfectly aligning with the company's dual-circulation development plan.
Once fully operational, the project is expected to generate an annual output value of over 1 billion yuan, annual tax revenue of over 14 million yuan, and directly employ over 1,200 people. For Kaiyuan, this project fills a gap in local high-end knitting and dyeing capacity, enriches the industrial ecosystem, and expands cross-border trade channels.
Bai Limin, deputy director of the CNTAC Industrial Park Office, noted that the Kaiyuan park is the only industrial park in Yunnan province with complete textile and dyeing capacity and has been integrated into the Hekou Border Industrial Park. This means the park is not an isolated manufacturing base but a key node in the national industrial gradient transfer and global supply chain restructuring.
Industry analysts predict that with the RCEP policy dividend, building a collaborative chain of 'domestic weaving + Southeast Asian garment' leveraging port advantages will become a trend. The BHT project is a pioneer in this trend, creating a high-end knit fabric supply center in the southwest that directly serves garment processing demand in Southeast Asia, changing the previous pattern of fabrics being shipped from the east.
Dong Shuxiu, vice president of the China Dyeing and Printing Association, emphasized that the project is a landmark project for regional green textile transformation. She recommended promoting processes like low-liquor ratio dyeing, water reuse, and waste heat recovery, and deploying MES and ERP systems for flexible customization and high-value fabric manufacturing. This means the new capacity must be not only large-scale but also green and smart.