China's home textile fabric industry is at a crossroads, shifting from scale-driven to value-driven growth. At the 2026 China Home Textile Association Fabric Branch Annual Meeting held in Keqiao, Shaoxing, host data revealed the industry's scale: nearly 8,000 curtain fabric enterprises with annual output of about 70 billion yuan and cross-border online trade of 800-900 million USD. However, Liang Pengcheng, Vice President of CNTAC, noted that while production, sales, and exports grew in H1, demand weakness and trade volatility persist. Volume growth with falling prices and profit pressure are common challenges.
Industry Landscape: Keqiao's Scale and Concerns
Keqiao, known as the 'economically strong district carried by a piece of cloth,' saw its textile city transaction volume exceed 440 billion yuan in 2025. Its curtain fabric cluster is nationally significant. Yet scale also brings low-price involution and product homogenization. Zhu Xiaohong, President of CHTA, reviewed the 14th Five-Year Plan period, pointing out that the fabric industry suffered from real estate downturn and rising raw material costs, with profits under pressure and exports showing volume growth but price decline. This means the old path of capacity expansion is exhausted; the industry must find new value anchors.
Breakthrough Directions: Design, Tech, and Going Global
The annual meeting sent a clear signal: the industry aims to break the deadlock through 'design breakthrough, tech empowerment, and global synergy.' Lin Shaowu, brand consultant at Tianyu New Materials, urged returning to real home scenarios, combining temperature control and antibacterial functions with healing colors and layered textures, building a product matrix of image, profit, and traffic items with unified design language to create brand recognition and pricing power. Original design is no longer just aesthetics but a core means to escape price wars and build long-term assets.
On the tech front, Associate Professor Ji Feng from Donghua University showcased AI applications: intelligent color matching via a massive dye database to solve digital printing color difference, and CNN-based fiber polarization image library for non-destructive rapid fabric composition identification, replacing traditional chemical tests. These technologies mean curtain enterprises can significantly reduce costs in sampling and quality inspection, freeing resources for creative R&D.
Going global offers another growth channel. Zhang Xiaocun, partner at Modern Media's home textile business, used TikTok data to illustrate practical paths: the platform covers 150+ countries with 2 billion monthly active users, with Southeast Asia and Latin America leading in home furnishing category growth. Immersive short videos, local influencers, and Keqiao industrial belt traceability livestreams provide replicable cross-border operation playbooks. Notably, cross-border e-commerce is reshaping trade channels from traditional B2B orders to direct-to-consumer models, demanding faster supply chain response and stronger branding from Keqiao enterprises.
AI and Spatial Intelligence: A Game-Changing Variable
Zhao Lu, Global VP of Collov AI, introduced 'Spatial AI,' opening new possibilities for the fabric industry. He noted that sampling, real-scene shooting, and scene presentation are costly; world models enable space parsing, material replacement, and one-click realistic scene generation, drastically reducing marginal costs. Commercial soft furnishing is prioritized, where AI-standardized solutions enhance bidding competitiveness. Zhao's judgment is direct: fabric physical data is a long-term core asset, and enterprises that first adopt spatial AI will reshape the competitive landscape. The logic is that AI is not a replacement but an amplifier—amplifying a company's existing data and design capabilities.
Policy and Ecosystem: Association Platform and Industrial Linkage
At the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan, CHTA defined six major 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 goals come with concrete plans—the association will regularly hold themed exchange meetings and supply chain matchmaking events, linking Keqiao China Textile City and the Curtain Fabric Association to promote original design innovation, tech transfer, and domestic-foreign trade integration. For Keqiao, this means its role will upgrade from a 'manufacturing base' to a 'design, tech, and global' synergy platform.