When homogenized competition becomes the norm, Jiangsu Province has chosen Wujiang as the key battleground. On August 6, the provincial textile industry advancement conference convened here, with six key enterprises including Hengli, Shenghong, and Taihu Snow in attendance, alongside the National Innovation Center for Advanced Functional Fibers. The message was clear: the next phase of textiles is no longer a scale race but a deep contest of technology and value.
Event Background
Wujiang, as a vital silk and textile industrial belt, hosts a complete chain from chemical fibers, weaving, to terminal brands. The conference's choice of Wujiang is no coincidence—home to giants like Hengli and Shenghong, distinctive brands like Taihu Snow and Shangjiukai, and the national-level functional fiber innovation center. This diverse ecosystem makes Wujiang a perfect window to observe Jiangsu's textile transformation path.
The core agenda centered on high-end, intelligent, and green development. While these are industry consensus, the uniqueness lies in the policy environment that continues to signal support for high-quality private economy development, and textiles is predominantly private. For Wujiang enterprises, this means transformation is not just a survival need but now has macro-level policy backing, encouraging bolder investment in R&D and digital upgrades.
Industry Impact
Hengli Chemical Fiber's general manager Zhao Jinguang articulated the tech-first approach: focusing on frontier advanced fiber materials and deepening full digital transformation of smart factories. This path integrates the entire petrochemical-textile chain with the innovation chain, elevating the cluster's overall capability through benchmark projects. For buyers, this implies more differentiated options in upstream fiber quality and functionality, moving beyond pure price competition.
Tang Junsong, general manager of Shenghong Chemical Fiber New Materials, highlighted another key point: intensifying homogenized competition necessitates filling critical technology gaps. Their strategy involves increasing R&D in green, low-carbon, and functional smart fibers while strengthening brand building and internationalization. This signals a shift in competition dimensions for chemical fiber companies from capacity expansion to technological barriers and brand premium. Downstream fabric and apparel companies should update supplier selection criteria accordingly, looking beyond price and lead time to assess technological reserves and sustainability capabilities.
Hu Yufang, chairman of Taihu Snow Silk, proposed a "two-way breakthrough": integrating millennium-old silk reeling techniques with modern functional fiber technology, while leveraging AI for creative design and flexible production. This combination offers a concrete path for time-honored brands to thrive in the new consumption era. For home textile and silk buyers, products will no longer carry just the "silk" label but a composite value of technology and culture, requiring reevaluation of innovation content in purchasing decisions.
Wu Jianhua of Shangjiukai emphasized building a self-controllable, high-end silk brand, while Huajia Silk focuses on high-quality, high-value-added products and a quality-efficiency path. These statements collectively indicate that Wujiang silk enterprises are bidding farewell to the "volume-driven" model, pivoting to brand and quality differentiation. For foreign trade companies, this is both a challenge—adapting to higher quality standards and shorter development cycles—and an opportunity, as high-value-added products offer greater profit margins and customer loyalty than bulk low-end orders.
Jingyi Special Fiber adheres to its niche in air-jet vortex spinning, concentrating on new material technology, smart manufacturing, and low-carbon production. This case demonstrates that even in niche segments, professional depth can build a strong moat. For SMEs, rather than price wars in red oceans, precision in niche categories is the key methodology conveyed by the Wujiang conference.