Textile Enterprises Are Increasingly Demanding High-Quality Cotton

At present, the quality improvement of cotton in Xinjiang has not achieved the desired effect. Whether in Xinjiang or local areas, China's cotton industry is making efforts to improve cotton quality, but the quality improvement is not achieved overnight.

In recent years, with China's Cotton textile industry With the structural adjustment, the demand for high-quality cotton in the industry is growing day by day, and the contradiction between the quality and structure of cotton in China and the cotton used by cotton textile enterprises is becoming increasingly prominent. Especially in recent years, China's pure cotton yarn market has been impacted by foreign low-cost yarns, and more and more enterprises have adjusted their product grades to develop into high quality and high-grade products. High quality products need high-quality cotton, and high-grade cotton resources in the market are becoming increasingly scarce.

Industry insiders said that cotton, as an important raw material of the cotton textile industry, should also adjust its quality and structure in the light of new changes in the cotton textile industry, and constantly improve the quantity and quality of high-grade cotton to meet the demand for cotton for transformation and upgrading of China's cotton textile industry.

Outstanding contradiction between quality and demand

There is a quality gap between China's cotton and Australian cotton, American cotton, etc. In the past two years, cotton quality problems have become increasingly prominent. Since China implemented the policy of temporary cotton storage and dumping, Cotton quality problems It is constantly criticized by cotton textile enterprises. Tang Qiyi, assistant general manager of Wuxi No. 1 Cotton Textile Factory, said that in the era of cotton storage, the mixed grade phenomenon of cotton was very serious. Due to the poor inspection management of cotton, the cotton purchased by enterprises is often inconsistent with the actual grade, and the problems of "three silk" and impurity are serious, so enterprises have to hire special people to pick and choose to use reluctantly in production. Chen Rong, general manager of Jiangsu Yueda Textile Group, said that the enterprise is very competitive in the field of high count yarn with high added value, but there are few corresponding cotton raw materials in China. He said: "There are too many 'three threads' in the cotton bag of the national reserve that the enterprise has auctioned and stored, so it is impossible to use them. The cotton auctioned and stored has become a stock. If our knitting yarn really uses domestic cotton, it will be a defective product."

The quality problem of cotton and the high price of cotton in China have made our cotton textile enterprises more and more interested in foreign cotton with low price and good quality. Unfortunately, there are cotton quota restrictions on imported cotton. For enterprises, having import cotton quota means they can use high-grade cotton, while without import quota, they can only look at "cotton". The technical director of a cotton spinning enterprise in Henan Province reported that the quality of Xinjiang cotton has been declining year by year since 2009. Last year, enterprises spun 40 combed yarns from Xinjiang cotton. Compared with Australian cotton of the same grade, the average strength difference was 30CN~50CN (compact spinning). Tested by imported AFIS instruments, the short staple rate of Australian cotton was 11%~12%, while that of Xinjiang cotton was 13%~14%. The 4-quantile length of Australian cotton was 32mm~33mm, while that of Xinjiang cotton was about 31mm. The price difference between the two was 4000 yuan/ton. The enterprise can not meet the requirements of weaving yarn for air jet looms with Xinjiang cotton, and can only rely on imported Australian cotton for production. However, the import volume has quota restrictions, so it has to reduce the output.

In addition, due to a long period of time, China's cotton price International cotton price There is a huge price difference, and a large number of low-cost pure cotton yarns from abroad have entered the Chinese market, which makes Chinese cotton textile enterprises continuously improve the grade of pure cotton yarn products to cope with the huge impact of foreign cotton yarns on the Chinese market. However, in fact, China's cotton market simply cannot support enterprises' demand for constantly improving product grades. The contradiction between the poor quality of domestic cotton and enterprises' demand for high-grade cotton is becoming increasingly prominent. Some enterprises said that domestic cotton processing enterprises and cotton textile enterprises were seriously disconnected, and the quality of domestic reserve cotton could not meet the requirements of enterprises. In addition, the deviation of policies resulted in the current situation of "lack of good cotton and overflow of poor cotton".

Multiple measures to deal with resource shortage

The quality of domestic cotton is difficult to meet the production requirements, and foreign cotton is limited by the quota of imported cotton. In order to use cotton that meets the production standards of enterprises, enterprises can be said to use all their skills.

Powerful enterprises "go global" and layout overseas development strategies have become the new trend of industry development. Domestic cotton textile enterprises such as Tianhong Textile Group, Blum Oriental Co., Ltd., Tianlong Textile Co., Ltd., Shandong Demian Group have set up factories overseas for development. The relevant person in charge of Tianhong Textile Group said that the enterprise's going global is more concerned with trade policies, but labor costs and raw material costs are also important factors for the enterprise to go global.

In order to use high-quality cotton, some enterprises choose to directly plant cotton in Xinjiang, represented by Shandong Lutai Textile, Guangdong Yida Textile, etc., to establish a cotton planting base in Xinjiang to ensure the product quality of enterprises with stable cotton quality.

For those enterprises that neither "go out" nor "grow cotton by themselves", it is particularly important to choose a reasonable time to purchase cotton. Wuxi Yimian is the representative of high count yarn in China's cotton textile enterprises. Tang Qiyi, the assistant general manager, said frankly in an interview that it is only the enterprise to adapt to the market, not the market to adapt to the enterprise. Therefore, when the quota of imported cotton is used up, cotton enterprises with slightly lower quality will also use it, and can only adjust the product structure as far as possible to adapt to market changes. He said that although the internal quality of cotton in China is generally poor, there are still good cotton. At present, it is the period when a large number of new cotton is listed on the market, and the cotton resources in the market are relatively sufficient, so enterprises will choose this time to reserve as many high-quality cotton resources as possible to cope with the shortage of high-quality cotton resources in the period when there is no connection between green and yellow cotton.

The rising demand for high-quality cotton has made domestic enterprises increasingly call for the cancellation of import cotton quotas. Xiao Jingyao, vice president of Huafang Group, said that he hoped that the country could increase or liberalize the quota restrictions on imported cotton, so that enterprises could have good cotton, which was the only fastest way to increase domestic high-quality cotton resources. Xu Wenying, vice president of the China Textile Industry Federation, also said that only by increasing or even canceling quotas can Chinese enterprises truly use both domestic and foreign markets.

It will take time to improve the quality of domestic cotton

At present, the relevant departments have recognized the seriousness of the problem of poor cotton quality and inability to meet the production needs of high-end products of enterprises in China. Last year, China cancelled the cotton purchase and storage policy and implemented the direct cotton subsidy policy. The market played a regulatory role, which gave cotton textile enterprises a glimpse of the dawn and also showed the country's attitude to improving cotton quality.

There are many factors affecting the quality of cotton, including variety, planting mode, purchase channels, processing methods, etc., especially Xinjiang machine-made cotton, which should be the representative of good cotton, has become the cotton that textile enterprises dare not use because of quality problems. This year is the second year of the implementation of the target price policy for cotton. In order to comply with the market development and requirements, many cotton processing enterprises have increased their control over cotton quality. Especially on the "three silk" issue, which is widely criticized by downstream textile enterprises, many cotton enterprises have tried to control it from the source. Xinjiang is the main producing area of cotton in China. As for the quality problem, Liang Dongya, vice president of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Cotton Association and general manager of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Cotton and Hemp Company, said in March this year when cotton was planted, cotton management in the past focused on yield, but now focuses on quality. The Corps has made improvements in seed selection, cultivation mode and cotton processing, Strive to minimize fiber damage, so as to improve the cotton quality of the Corps as a whole.

But at present, the quality improvement of Xinjiang cotton has not achieved the desired effect. A color textile enterprise in Shandong said that this year, the "three silk" problem of new cotton is still bothering the enterprise to receive orders and produce. The person in charge of the enterprise introduced that in order to find cotton that meets the quality requirements, the enterprise tried to pick cotton by hand and machine in Xinjiang this year, but the effect was not ideal, and the "three silk" problem was still not effectively controlled. It is understood that colored spinning has high requirements for cotton "three filaments". Because "three silk" is difficult to dye, In addition, it will be gradually broken in the spinning process, and the number is increasing. It is attached to the yarn in the form of bundles of filaments, which directly affects the strength of the yarn and the appearance of the fabric. Dark varieties are more obvious. Therefore, before dyeing, raw cotton should be sorted for "three silk" treatment, especially when dyeing dark cotton, the requirements for "three silk" should be more strict, and there should be basically no "three silk" inclusion. The person in charge of the enterprise said that in order to produce high-end colored yarn that can meet the requirements of foreign customers, he would not hesitate to invest huge manpower and financial resources to select "three filaments", but also paid a great price for this.

Whether Xinjiang or local, China's cotton industry is making efforts to improve cotton quality, but insiders said that the improvement of cotton quality is not achieved overnight. If the quality of China's cotton is to meet the standards of high-end products produced by cotton textile enterprises, all parties still need to improve from seed, planting, processing, transportation and other aspects, improve the overall quality of China's cotton, and make cotton a favorable cornerstone for the upgrading of China's cotton textile enterprises.