While the industry is mired in price wars and homogenized competition, data from Keqiao's curtain fabric cluster paints a clear picture: in 2025, China Light Textile City's turnover exceeded 440 billion yuan, with nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises and annual output value near 70 billion yuan, plus cross-border online transactions of 800 to 900 million USD. These numbers underscore the urgent need for transformation in an economy 'supported by a piece of cloth.' On August 12, the 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch Annual Meeting was held in Keqiao, Shaoxing, centering on the theme 'Design Breakthrough, Technology Empowerment, Omni-channel Symbiosis.' The meeting charted a course for the '15th Five-Year Plan' period: shifting from scale expansion to value growth, from manufacturing mindset to brand thinking, and from single products to integrated soft furnishing solutions.
Background
Zhu Xiaohong, president of the China Home Textile Association, reviewed the achievements of the '14th Five-Year Plan': stable industrial scale, improved standards system, and accelerated original design and branding. However, the fabric industry faced profit pressure in the first half due to real estate downturn and rising raw material costs, with exports showing volume growth but price decline. This signals that the old growth model based on scale and low-cost exports has peaked, forcing the industry to seek new value anchors. Liang Pengcheng, vice president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, emphasized that while production, sales, and exports grew steadily in the first half, weak demand and trade volatility persist. He proposed three paths: technology empowerment, green upgrading, and consumer insight, acknowledging Keqiao's vitality as a curtain fabric cluster.
Industry Impact
Original design has become the core weapon against homogenization. Lin Shaowu, brand consultant for Tianyu New Materials, pointed out that the root cause of price wars is product homogeneity, and the solution lies in returning to real home scenarios. By focusing on 300 million people with sleep disorders, separate duvet needs, and work-from-home trends, companies can combine temperature control and antibacterial functions with healing colors and layered textures. Building a product matrix of image products, profit products, and traffic products with unified design language creates brand recognition and pricing power. This means companies must shift from single-product sales to whole-home lifestyle output, making original design a long-term core asset.
AI technology is moving from labs to production lines, offering practical cost reduction and efficiency gains. Ji Feng, associate professor at Donghua University, demonstrated digital and functional textile technologies: AI-based precise color matching solves digital printing color differences, while CNN deep learning enables non-destructive rapid fiber identification, replacing traditional chemical testing. Zhao Lu, global VP of Collov AI, proposed spatial AI as the key to fabric industry efficiency. World models enable spatial parsing, material replacement, and one-click realistic scene generation, saving tens of thousands in physical sampling and photography costs. Contract soft furnishing is prioritized as the first application scenario, where AI-standardized solutions significantly boost bidding competitiveness. He emphasized that fabric physical data is a long-term core asset, and embodied intelligence will only scale in warehousing, sorting, and inspection within three years. For SMEs, this means not fearing AI replacement but embracing spatial intelligence to reshape competitive dynamics.
Cross-border e-commerce opens global growth space for SMEs. Zhang Xiaocun, partner at Modern Media's home textile division, cited TikTok data: the platform covers over 150 countries with 2 billion monthly active users, and Southeast Asia and Latin America lead global growth in home categories. He shared playbooks like immersive short videos, local influencers, and live-streaming from the Keqiao industrial belt, advising companies to build a three-tier product matrix (basic, functional, and co-branded). For foreign trade enterprises, this means globalization is no longer exclusive to large companies; with platform traffic dividends and supply chain advantages, SMEs can enter overseas blue-ocean markets.