When a curtain fabric industry cluster with an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan meets a cycle of export volume growth but price decline, a discussion on how to bid farewell to low-price involution was pushed to a climax at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Fabric Branch of the China Home Textile Association. Held in Keqiao, Shaoxing, the meeting did not dwell on optimistic expectations for the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan but confronted real issues such as the property downturn, rising raw material costs, and profit pressure, attempting to find a path for the fabric industry to transform from scale advantage to quality and brand advantage.
Industry Landscape: The 'Fabric Economy' of 440 Billion and Its Hidden Concerns
Keqiao, as an 'economic powerhouse supported by a piece of cloth,' its industrial data itself is a barometer for the industry. According to public data, the transaction volume of China Light Textile City exceeded 440 billion yuan in 2025, with nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises, an annual output value of about 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transaction volume reaching 800 million to 900 million US dollars. This scale means that Keqiao is not only the largest fabric distribution center in China but also a key node in the global curtain supply chain. However, Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, reminded in his speech that although production, sales, and exports increased steadily in the first half of the year, pressure from weak demand and trade fluctuations persists. The trend of volume growth but price decline in home textile exports precisely indicates that low-price competition has not eased with scale expansion but has become further entrenched in overseas markets.
Breakthrough Paths: A Trio of Design, AI, and Green Manufacturing
Facing involution, the solutions offered by attendees were not a single technology but a combination. Lin Shaowu, brand consultant of Tianyu New Materials, directly pointed to the root of price wars—product homogenization—and proposed returning to real home scenarios of users, building brand recognition and pricing power through original design. His product matrix concept of 'image products, profit products, and traffic products' provides an actionable framework for factories to shift from single-product sales to whole-home soft furnishing lifestyle output. Ji Feng, Associate Professor at Donghua University's College of Textiles, demonstrated the potential of university-industry collaboration: through AI dye databases and CNN deep learning, achieving intelligent color matching for digital printing and non-destructive identification of fabric composition, directly addressing the pain points of slow sampling and high testing costs for curtain enterprises. Zhao Lu, Global VP of Collov AI, further proposed the concept of 'Spatial AI,' using world models to achieve one-click realistic scene generation and material replacement, targeting commercial soft furnishing as the priority landing track, and predicting that warehousing, sorting, and inspection processes can be scaled first. These technological paths collectively point to a core judgment: fabric physical data will become a long-term core asset for enterprises, and those who first deploy spatial intelligence will reshape the competitive landscape.
New Variables in Going Global: Traffic Dividends and Industrial Belt Traceability
Against the backdrop of dual circulation, cross-border e-commerce became a high-frequency word at the annual meeting. Zhang Xiaocun, partner of Modern Media's home textile business, pointed out based on TikTok data that the platform covers more than 150 countries with 2 billion monthly active users, with Southeast Asia and Latin America leading global growth in home furnishing categories. His proposed approach of 'immersive short videos + local influencers + Keqiao industrial belt traceability live streaming' essentially transforms the supply chain advantages of the manufacturing end into trust assets on the content end. For Keqiao's nearly 8,000 curtain enterprises, this means going global is no longer a simple B2B order-taking process but requires building a complete system from product layering (basic, functional, co-branded) to content operations. Zhu Xiaohong, President of the China Home Textile Association, emphasized in her keynote that it is necessary to improve the global diversified supply chain and deeply tap into domestic soft furnishing renewal demand, complementing the going-global strategy—using cross-border e-commerce to hedge against the property downturn and stabilizing the fundamentals with domestic stock renewal.