With nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises and an annual output value approaching 70 billion yuan, Keqiao, the 'economic powerhouse on a piece of cloth,' once again became the industry's barometer. On August 12, the 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch annual meeting was held here, sending a clear signal: the home textile fabric industry is bidding farewell to the old logic of scale expansion and shifting to a new cycle of value growth supported by design, technology, and globalization.
Industry Shift: Pressure and Potential Behind the Data
Sun Weigang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee of China Light Textile City, disclosed a set of data outlining the massive scale of Keqiao's home textile industry: in 2025, the transaction volume of the Light Textile City exceeded 440 billion yuan, with nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises and an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transaction volume reached 800 to 900 million US dollars. However, Zhu Xiaohong, President of the China Home Textile Association, also admitted during the review of the '14th Five-Year Plan' achievements that the industry's exports showed a trend of volume growth with price declines in the first half of the year, with corporate profits under pressure, mainly due to the downturn in real estate and rising raw material prices.
This seemingly contradictory set of data reveals a reality: scale advantages remain, but the profit model is failing. For buyers, this means the era of pure price comparison is over; supply chain competition will shift from 'who can be cheaper' to 'who can more accurately meet segmented needs.' For factories, the survival rule in the context of overcapacity is no longer expansion but cost reduction and efficiency improvement through technology and management.
Paths to Breakthrough: The Trio of Design, AI, and Going Global
The meeting focused on four major sections: 'design breakthrough, technology empowerment, AI empowerment, and omni-channel.' Among them, AI and original design were repeatedly mentioned. Ji Feng, Associate Professor at Donghua University, showcased cutting-edge achievements in textile digitalization and intelligence: establishing dye databases and AI smart color matching to solve digital printing color difference problems; using fiber polarization image libraries and CNN deep learning to achieve non-destructive rapid identification of fabric composition, replacing traditional chemical testing. What does this mean? For small and medium-sized factories, AI is no longer an unattainable concept but a practical tool to reduce sampling costs and shorten delivery cycles.
Zhao Lu, Global VP of Collov AI, proposed more specific application scenarios: using world models to achieve spatial analysis and material replacement, saving hundreds of thousands of yuan in offline sampling and real shooting costs; commercial soft furnishing is listed as a priority landing track, with AI standardized solutions significantly enhancing project bidding competitiveness. He predicted that within the next three years, AI can be applied on a large scale in warehousing, sorting, and inspection processes, and fabric physical data will become a long-term core asset for enterprises. This reminds foreign trade enterprises: accumulating product digital assets early is more important than short-term orders.
The path to going global also gained new connotations. Zhang Xiaocun, Partner of Modern Media, used TikTok data as an example: the platform covers more than 150 countries with 2 billion monthly active users, and the home furnishing categories in Southeast Asia and Latin America are leading global growth. He suggested enterprises adopt immersive short videos, local influencers, and industry belt traceability live streaming, and build a three-tier product matrix of basic, functional, and co-branded items. For small and medium-sized enterprises lacking overseas channels, this provides a replicable lightweight route to going global.
Strategic Shift: From 'Manufacturing Thinking' to 'Solution Thinking'
Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, emphasized that the industry should adhere to the directions of technology, fashion, green, and health, and follow three paths: technology empowerment, green upgrade, and consumption insight. Zhu Xiaohong proposed six major goals for the '15th Five-Year Plan,' including improving the global diversified supply chain, deeply tapping domestic soft furnishing renewal demand, activating new quality productivity with AI and industry-academia-research integration, building independent brands of Chinese home textile aesthetics, implementing full-chain carbon footprint standards, and laying out healthy sleep laboratories.
Behind these statements is a collective consensus on 'value growth.' Lin Shaowu, Brand Consultant of Tianyu New Materials, provided a more practical sharing: focusing on new demands such as 300 million people with sleep disorders, separate duvets for couples, and home office, combining functions like temperature control and antibacterial with healing colors, building a product matrix of image, profit, and traffic items, and promoting the transformation of enterprises from single-product sales to whole-house soft furnishing lifestyle output. This means that in the future, the competitiveness of home textile enterprises will no longer depend on production capacity but on whether they can convert functional innovation into brand premium.