When curtain fabric output value approaches 70 billion yuan but exports show volume growth with price decline, China's home textile industry stands at a crossroads. On August 12, the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Home Textile Association's Fabric Branch in Keqiao, Shaoxing, turned the slogan 'from scale expansion to value growth' into a concrete roadmap through data and practical sharing.
Industrial Coordinates: Keqiao's Scale and Hidden Worries
As an 'economic powerhouse on a piece of cloth,' Keqiao's industrial data itself is a bellwether. China Light Textile City's transaction volume exceeded 440 billion yuan in 2025, with nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises, annual output value near 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transactions of 800-900 million USD. Behind these numbers lies a complete textile chain and strong manufacturing capacity. However, the flip side is that while production, sales, and exports grew steadily in H1, pressures from weak demand, trade volatility, and rising raw material costs persist, squeezing corporate profits and leading to volume growth with price decline. This means the old path of capacity expansion and low-price competition is exhausted; value growth becomes a survival issue.
Transformation Paths: Four Engines of Design, Tech, AI, and Going Global
To counter homogenization, brand consultant Lin Shaowu proposed returning to real home scenarios, focusing on 300 million people with sleep disorders, separate duvets, and work-from-home needs, combining temperature control and antibacterial functions with healing colors and layered textures, and building a product matrix of image, profit, and traffic items. The logic is that original design is no longer optional but a core barrier for brand recognition and pricing power, pushing companies from single-product sales to whole-home soft furnishing lifestyle output.
Donghua University Associate Professor Ji Feng showcased the potential of university-industry collaboration: AI-based color matching to solve digital printing color differences, CNN deep learning for non-destructive fiber identification replacing chemical tests, and functional fabrics like phase-change temperature control and nano-modification. These technologies come with lightweight intelligent testing solutions for home textiles, meaning SMEs can access cutting-edge tech at low cost, achieving product differentiation and functional premiums.
AI applications were further specified. Collov AI VP Zhao Lu addressed the high costs of sampling, real-scene shooting, and scene expression, proposing three directions for spatial AI: world models for space analysis and material replacement, saving hundreds of thousands in shooting costs; commercial soft furnishing as a priority track, with AI-standardized proposals enhancing bid competitiveness; and embodied intelligence, which will be scalable in warehousing, sorting, and inspection within three years. He emphasized that fabric physical data is a long-term core asset and provided a three-month lightweight implementation path—meaning AI is not a concept but an immediately actionable cost-reduction tool for foreign trade factories and brands.
Going global offers another incremental channel. Zhang Xiaocun from Modern Media cited TikTok data: the platform 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 tactics like immersive short videos, local influencers, and Keqiao industrial belt traceability livestreams, plus a three-tier product matrix for cross-border stores. For Keqiao enterprises long reliant on traditional foreign trade orders, this provides a realistic path from B2B to B2C, directly reaching overseas consumers, but also demands faster product development and small-batch, quick-response capabilities.
Policy and Ecosystem: Association Platforms, Cluster Synergy
Home Textile Association President Zhu Xiaohong reviewed 14th Five-Year achievements: stable industry scale, improved science and technology standards, accelerated original design and branding, but the fabric industry was hit by real estate downturn. Aligned with the national 15th Five-Year Plan, the association proposed six goals: improving global diversified supply chains, tapping domestic soft furnishing renewal demand, activating new productive forces through AI and industry-academia-research integration, building Chinese home textile aesthetic brands, implementing full-chain carbon footprint standards, and establishing healthy sleep laboratories. These are not vague visions but will be supported by industry implementation plans and regular exchange events.
China National Textile and Apparel Council Vice President Liang Pengcheng emphasized following the directions of technology, fashion, green, and health, and taking three paths: science and technology empowerment, green upgrading, and demand-led market reconstruction. This indicates policy is guiding enterprises from scale advantage to quality and brand advantage, with Keqiao as a key curtain fabric cluster. The association will continue to collaborate with China Light Textile City, holding themed exchange meetings and supply chain matchmaking events to promote original design innovation, technology transfer, and integrated domestic and foreign trade.