While the global textile industry is still digesting the shocks of geopolitics and demand divergence, a set of semi-annual data from Keqiao reveals another possibility: regional GDP of 122 billion yuan, up 7.0%; foreign trade exports of 110.34 billion yuan, up 16%; and China Textile City transaction volume of 268.36 billion yuan, up 9.1%. Behind these numbers lies a reality where digital intelligence is moving from single-point trials to full-chain reshaping, and a typical sample of China's textile industry shifting from scale expansion to value leap on the eve of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Event Background
The 9th World Textile Merchandising Conference is scheduled for November 6, 2026, in Keqiao, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, under the theme "Interconnection of Warp and Weft: Smartly Enabling a New Future for Global Textiles." Since its inception in 2018, the conference has been held eight times. This edition will gather institutions and enterprises from over 60 textile-focused countries and regions, focusing on three major topics: industrial resilience building, low-carbon transition implementation, and deep application of digital intelligence. Notably, Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, stated at the press conference that global industrial layout is shifting from efficiency-first to a balance of security and resilience, AI is moving from single-point empowerment to full-chain reshaping, and green development is evolving from conceptual consensus to hard constraints. These three judgments essentially set the coordinate system for the industry's direction in the next five years.
As the "International Textile Capital," Keqiao has formed a unique structure of a hundred-billion-level industrial scale combined with a four-hundred-billion-level market transaction volume. During the conference, the organizing committee will release the "2027 World Textile Industry Trend Outlook" and form a linkage matrix with over ten concurrent events. For the industry, the signal of this conference is that digitalization is no longer a passive option but a competitive tool for actively defining standards and reshaping value chains.
Industrial Impact
The penetration of digital intelligence is changing the cost structure and competitive logic of the textile industry. Yan Yan, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, proposed that the industry needs to focus on five dimensions: original technology breakthroughs in high-performance fibers, smart textiles, and digital twin manufacturing; advancing toward the high end of the value chain; building green standards and carbon accounting systems aligned with international norms; leveraging industry-level industrial internet platforms to break down data barriers across the supply chain; and enhancing global rule participation and resource allocation capabilities. These five paths essentially elevate AI from a production auxiliary role to a strategic decision-making hub, implying that future competitiveness will hinge on data asset accumulation and algorithm application capabilities.
For Keqiao, the 15th Five-Year Plan period is positioned as a critical five years for advancing toward a world-class industrial cluster. The local government has set a "three world-class" goal: building a world-class large market, a world-class industrial base, and a world-class science and technology innovation platform. Specific actions include: implementing "one market, one feature" micro-renovations on old markets, deepening the "market+" integrated business format; building a "3+X" high-level science and technology innovation platform matrix, promoting a "university + platform + enterprise + industry chain" four-party pairing; and advancing the "Silk Road Keqiao · Full Cloth Global" action to weave a denser overseas marketing network. The underlying intent is to push the Textile City from "scaling up" to "value creation." For buyers, this means supply chain responsiveness, customization capabilities, and green compliance thresholds will all rise simultaneously.
Changes in foreign trade structure are equally noteworthy. From January to July, Keqiao's foreign trade exports grew 16%, significantly higher than the national average growth rate for textile and apparel exports, indicating that industrial clustering effects and digital transformation are supporting export competitiveness. However, uncertainties from global supply chain restructuring remain. Sun Ruizhe's emphasis on "forging resilience through openness" is not empty talk—the opening of cross-border digital cooperation channels will directly affect enterprises' ability to maintain delivery stability amid tariff fluctuations and logistics bottlenecks.