When a curtain fabric industry reaches an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan, it is no longer a simple textile product but a barometer of a regional economy. On August 12, the 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch annual meeting was held in Keqiao, Shaoxing. Data disclosed at the meeting were striking: Keqiao has nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises with an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transactions reached 800-900 million US dollars. Meanwhile, exports in the first half of the year showed a trend of increasing volume but decreasing price, with profits squeezed by the real estate downturn and rising raw material costs. Scale remains, but the growth logic has changed.
The Truth Behind the Data: An Industrial Cluster in Transition
Keqiao is known as a 'strong economic district supported by a piece of cloth.' In 2025, the turnover of the China Textile City exceeded 440 billion yuan. What does this number mean? It indicates that Keqiao is not only a production center but also a trading hub. Nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises are concentrated here, forming a complete industrial chain from yarn, weaving, dyeing and finishing to finished products. But a complete chain does not equal a high-value chain. When export volume increases but prices fall, it suggests we are still exchanging low prices for market share, and brand premium capability is weak.
Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, said frankly that the industry's production, sales, and exports grew steadily in the first half, but pressures from weak demand and trade fluctuations remain. The three paths he proposed—technology empowerment, green upgrading, and consumer insight—essentially answer the same question: how to make a piece of cloth sell at a higher added value. For buyers, this means the era of pure price comparison is passing; differentiated products with functionality and design will gain greater pricing power.
From 'Selling Cloth' to 'Selling Space': The Logic of Transformation
The theme of this annual meeting, 'Design Breakthrough, Technology Empowerment, Global Symbiosis,' directly addresses the industry's pain points: product homogeneity and price involution. Lin Shaowu, brand consultant of Tianyu New Materials, proposed that the core of breaking through is returning to users' real home scenarios. He focused on new demands such as 300 million people with sleep disorders, separate bedding for couples, and home office, advocating combining temperature control and antibacterial functions with healing colors and layered textures. Behind this is a change in consumption logic—consumers are not buying a piece of cloth but a more comfortable sleep and a better living space.
Professor Ji Feng from Donghua University's College of Textiles shared how universities can empower the industry: using AI intelligent color matching to solve digital printing color differences, and using CNN deep learning for non-destructive fiber composition identification, replacing traditional chemical testing. Once these technologies are implemented, they will significantly reduce testing costs and shorten sample development cycles. For factories, this means the window for transforming from 'order-based production' to 'technology-driven' is already open.
AI and Going Global: Two Most Realistic Growth Channels
Zhao Lu, Global VP of Collov AI, addressed the pain point of high costs in sample development and real-scene photography in the fabric industry. He proposed that spatial AI is key to improving efficiency: through world models, space analysis, material replacement, and one-click real-scene generation can save hundreds of thousands of yuan in offline sample delivery and real shooting costs. He also predicted that in the next three years, embodied intelligence can only be applied on a large scale in warehousing, sorting, and inspection processes. For small and medium-sized enterprises, this is undoubtedly a low-barrier opportunity to embrace AI—no need to develop algorithms, but they can use AI tools to reshape competitiveness.
On the going-global front, Zhang Xiaocun from Modern Media provided equally attractive data: TikTok covers 150+ countries with 2 billion monthly active users, and home furnishing categories in Southeast Asia and Latin America are growing fastest globally. He shared practical methods such as immersive short videos, local influencers, and live streaming from Keqiao industrial belt. This means that globalization, once a track exclusive to leading enterprises, now allows SMEs to benefit from traffic dividends. However, going global is not simply selling goods abroad; it requires a three-tier product matrix—basic, functional, and co-branded—to meet the needs of different markets and customer groups.