When the annual output value of curtain fabrics approaches 70 billion yuan and cross-border online transactions reach 800 to 900 million US dollars, Keqiao—an economic powerhouse 'supported by a piece of cloth'—still admits at its annual meeting to 'profit pressure and volume growth with price decline'. This contrasting data set suggests that the inventory competition in home textile fabrics cannot be resolved by scale alone; the real variables lie at the intersection of design, technology, and channels.
Event Background
The 2026 Annual Meeting of the Home Textile Association's Fabric Branch was held in Shaoxing Keqiao, themed 'Design Breakthrough, Technology Empowerment, Global Symbiosis'. Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, highlighted the industry's baseline in the opening year of the '15th Five-Year Plan': production, sales, and exports grew steadily, but weak demand and trade fluctuations continued to pressure. His three proposed paths—AI digital transformation, green manufacturing, and leveraging Keqiao for diversified markets—are essentially responses to the core issue of escaping low-price involution.
Keqiao's statements carry further industrial significance. Sun Weigang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee of China Textile City, disclosed that in 2025, the turnover of the Textile City exceeded 440 billion yuan, with nearly 8,000 local curtain fabric enterprises, an annual output value of nearly 70 billion yuan, and cross-border online transactions of 800 to 900 million US dollars. Behind these figures is Keqiao's ongoing construction of an 'International Textile Capital', including UFI-certified professional exhibitions and the 'Silk Road Keqiao, Cloth Man Worldwide' initiative. For buyers, Keqiao is no longer just a low-cost supply base but a comprehensive hub offering design, technology, and export services.
Industrial Impact
Zhu Xiaohong, President of the China Home Textile Association, reviewed the achievements of the '14th Five-Year Plan', acknowledging progress in industrial scale, standard systems, and original design, while also pointing to the dual squeeze from real estate downturn and raw material price increases. Among her six major tasks, 'improving the global diversified supply chain' and 'deepening domestic soft furnishing renewal demand' reveal a rebalancing of domestic and international trade. Particularly noteworthy are the 'full-chain carbon footprint standard' and 'healthy sleep laboratory'—the former will reshape export compliance thresholds, while the latter targets the consumer upgrade demand of 300 million people with sleep disorders.
Signals from the technology side are equally strong. Ji Feng, Associate Professor at Donghua University, demonstrated AI-based intelligent color matching and CNN fiber identification, offering low-cost solutions to two major pain points: digital printing color differences and fabric composition testing. For factories, this means shorter sampling cycles and lower testing costs, but only if they invest in data accumulation. Collov AI's 'Spatial AI' concept goes further, using world models for spatial analysis and material replacement, allowing fabric companies to shift from single-product displays to integrated soft furnishing solutions. Its assertion that 'fabric physical data is a long-term core asset' deserves deep consideration—whoever builds data barriers first will hold the next round of pricing power.
The practicality of overseas expansion was particularly prominent. Media shared TikTok data showing over 150 countries and 2 billion monthly active users, with Southeast Asia and Latin America leading global growth in home furnishing categories. This provides Keqiao's industrial belt with directly replicable tactics: immersive short videos, local influencer collaborations, and industrial belt traceability live streams, paired with a three-tier product matrix of basic, functional, and co-branded items. However, one must be cautious: traffic dividends will fade, and what truly retains overseas customers is product strength and supply chain responsiveness, not mere traffic tricks.