Observation On The Operation Of Rudong Textile Industry: Difficulties In Transformation

The troubles of maturity

To break through the industry dilemma and promote transformation and upgrading is a topic that textile enterprises must face directly, but this road is not a smooth road.

Generally speaking, the main way to promote the transformation and upgrading of enterprises is to upgrade the product level. As the basic support, it is necessary to upgrade the production equipment. The reporter learned in the interview that the equipment level of textile enterprises in our county is generally very high.

As far as home textile weaving is concerned, Rudong started early and has a large industry scale. In years of market tempering, the enterprise has developed strong quality control ability. "Up to 120." Chen Xiaojin, director of the Economic Development Bureau of Shuangdian Town, said that according to his observation of local textile enterprises, the short service life of equipment and the high running quality of vehicle platform are the common characteristics. "Which kind of new machine is advanced and easy to use will be popularized in a short time."

"Cloth doesn't sell at a good price, but the quality of cloth is very good." Xu Lu, industrial assistant of Chahe Town, also said that although the high-end effect should not be shown in the market, the equipment level of textile enterprises has reached the industry leading level. Compared with the conventional quality control in other areas.

If we want to realize the pursuit of more advanced production equipment, of course, there is not no space at all. In theory, textile equipment manufacturing and research and development will continue to progress, the use of more advanced equipment, can bring greater competitive advantages for enterprises. But the key constraint is that, on a higher benchmark, this investment is often out of proportion to return.

"For example, if I import pure imported equipment, it costs hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan more than each of the existing machines. That's a loss." However, the company's total investment in textile machinery is limited.

From the perspective of labor supply, the intelligent transformation in some labor-intensive industries is also difficult to work in textile enterprises. "It's quite expensive." According to Tang Xuefeng, general manager of Nantong century Tianhong Textile Co., Ltd., in 2018, Tianhong Group, the parent company, established an intelligent spinning factory in Xuzhou, with a cost of more than 1 billion yuan, which is hard for ordinary enterprises to bear.

Huang Jianguo said that the weaving industry has its particularity, especially in weaving. Some processes can not be fully automated and still need to be operated by someone. This means that in a foreseeable period of time, even if the process reengineering, it is difficult to achieve a high degree of intelligence. "The original workers may be eliminated because of the difficulty in upgrading their ability level simultaneously, while the new workers must have a higher quality level." Tang Xuefeng believes that from the perspective of the existing labor supply structure, even if it is not a paradox, it is also very difficult to achieve.

To say the least, even if the enterprise is willing to carry out transformation within its ability, the digestion of cost is also a problem. "You think you can save 10 people's wages, but if you take all the above expenses into account, it may take decades to recover the investment." Jiangsu Songbai Textile Co., Ltd. general manager Tan Yanhong said.

"After decades of development, the textile industry has entered a mature period." According to Yuan Xiang, chairman of Nantong Yuanye industry and Trade Co., Ltd., "only relying on equipment improvement to promote transformation and upgrading, the space is already very small."

The shackles of innovation

As one of the signs of industry maturity, it is more and more difficult for textile enterprises to carry out innovation.

"In terms of basic innovation, the means around cloth are almost exhausted." Yuan Xiang has been engaged in grey fabric weaving industry for nearly 20 years. In terms of weaving methods, there are plain weave, twill weave, large jacquard and small jacquard. Later, he developed yarn dyed weaving. In terms of fabric materials, from pure cotton, polyester cotton, chemical fiber, man-made cotton to silk and bamboo fiber, but the materials that people can think of and can use have entered this industry. It will be more difficult to develop new varieties in the future.

In addition, innovation must consider market acceptance. Zhou Zhengxu, chairman of Nantong Hengchang Textile Co., Ltd., said that home textile is a kind of raw material product, and textile enterprises themselves do not have enough discourse power on innovation, so they must follow the market trend. "If you develop a new product without authorization, it may take three to five years to get market recognition, or it may never be recognized."

Jiangsu Songbai Textile Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the production of automobile interior cloth, which will be used in some car seats and ceiling. Like home textile fabrics, interior cloth is also in a supporting link. "No matter how innovative, we must meet the needs of customers. No matter how new the product is, we also need strong customers to push it forward." Tan Yanhong said.

According to Gu Xuchun, chairman of Nantong Yongshang Textile Co., Ltd., the "marginal utility" of product innovation in the field of grey fabric weaving is decreasing. He believes that the role of innovation is to upgrade products from low-end to high-end and from high-end to higher-end. However, in the textile industry, products at each level are already very rich. "The so-called overcapacity refers to the overabundance of high, medium and low-end products, which does not mean that the high-end products will be sold out."

For the current textile industry, there is a specific organizational innovation also worthy of attention. "At present, there are four or five enterprises in the county to invest and build factories in Xinjiang. As far as we know, they are developing well." Yuan Weihua, a member of the Party group of the county's development and Reform Commission and full-time deputy director of the Bureau of industry and information technology, said that enterprises enjoy preferential policies such as tax, social security, land and electricity utilization, and the production cost has been greatly reduced.

Under the background of "enterprises in Southeast Asia" and "going out of the region", some enterprises can be transferred to other industries. But in Yuan Weihua's view, this choice does not have the "universal value" to promote the transformation.

On the one hand, because "going out" requires sufficient capital strength, and enterprises are smaller than a certain scale, it is impossible to talk about capacity transfer; on the other hand, with the gradual increase of settled enterprises, the policy dividend is likely to be diluted. "For example, if you go to 10 enterprises in the mainland, each enterprise will be subsidized by 100000 yuan. If you go to 100 enterprises, the subsidy for each enterprise may be only 10000 yuan." The main role of the policy, he said, is to guide rather than support an industry indefinitely.

As far as Southeast Asia is concerned, the cost of using resources is not as low as expected. Nantong Wanyu Clothing Co., Ltd. has a branch factory in Vietnam. Zhu qunqi, deputy general manager of Nantong Wanyu Garment Co., Ltd., observed that when some domestic textile enterprises settled in the surrounding Myanmar and Cambodia, they usually encountered such problems: once the wages were paid every month, the workers would not come to work until the wages were almost spent, which seriously affected the normal production order, and even some enterprises had to bring workers from China People in the past. "Vietnam is doing better, but the costs are also increasing."

The difference of human mind

Vicious competition and mutual "obstruction" and "killing" is another bottom scenery of textile industry.

"The more we don't want to sell each other." Huang Jianguo has no choice but to talk about the current situation. He remembers that in the middle of last year, cotton yarn prices fluctuated violently, making it more difficult for enterprises to control costs. "As soon as the raw materials come back, they will fall again, and the customers will ask for a lower price to pick up the goods. Everyone else is falling, you don't? "

Zhou Zhengxu also had a deep understanding. "The first person sells for 10 yuan and 8 yuan, the second person sells 9 yuan and 8 yuan, and the third person can get 9 yuan and 6 yuan by biting his teeth. At this time, there is no common sense to judge He said that in addition to "price fixing" in a "gap", some of his peers even directly snatched customers. He once encountered the situation that his cooperative customers were "cut off" by others at low prices.

"In the face of the bottom line, enterprises should not keep their profits." Zhou Zhengxu said that the management of some enterprises is chaotic, and the costs of taxes, social security and other aspects are lower than those of other enterprises. Therefore, they can compress the product prices beyond the conventional way and form a great impact on other standardized enterprises.

But in the face of interests, morality is usually very fragile. Chen Xiaojin told reporters about such a case: last year, more than 10 textile enterprises in shuangdian town made an appointment to develop customers at an exhibition in Shandong Province. During the negotiation, due to the poor communication between the responsible persons of the enterprise, different quotations were given for the same product from the same customer, which eventually evolved into mutual bargaining and failed. "We should have a good relationship at ordinary times, so we can make an appointment to participate in the exhibition. Who would have thought that the alliance would collapse just because of the difference of a few cents. "

"When the market is in a downturn, even if several enterprises can unite to attack a big customer and split the orders, it is better than staying at home to eat and starve." Yuan Xiang believes that according to the technical level of Rudong textile, it is not difficult to unify the quality of products, but rather to unify the price. Therefore, it is usually impossible to achieve this.

In fact, there is no effective industry alliance, which has been the development defect of Rudong textile industry. The reporter learned that, as early as 2006, Rudong County textile chamber of Commerce was established, and then several textile towns also established town level textile associations. However, for many years, industry organizations failed to play their due role in strengthening enterprise communication and adjusting industry ecology.

"The problem is that there are different people." Yan Lipei, Secretary General of the Textile Association of Chahe Town, told reporters that the association was established in 2008, when the financial crisis broke out. Many textile enterprises took the initiative to find the town, hoping to establish an industry organization "group heating". "At the beginning, enterprises were able to actively participate in activities and follow the association's scheduling. Later, the market gradually improved and the enterprise's activity decreased. Over time, the association was in vain."

Two or three years ago, Gu Xuchun set up a wechat group with dozens of textile owners in order to strengthen ties and exchange what they needed. "At first, the group was very active, and everyone responded to the call. Later, the atmosphere faded." All he has to do is figure out his own life.

As the vice president of the Textile Association of Chahe Town, Gu Xuchun has been calling on enterprises to jointly control production capacity, but people's minds are "different", which makes the sound of reason extremely weak. "As long as the market continues to improve for a period of time, there will be a wave of equipment growth. "Well, for a month or two, take a look; for three months, my heart itches; for four or five months, I can't stop it."

"In the area of Keqiao and Xucun in Zhejiang Province, although the scale of the local textile industry is not particularly large, it is backed by strong industry organizations, with a high degree of alliance among enterprises and a strong ability to resist risks. On the contrary, it is not so good in this respect. " County textile chamber of Commerce chairman Guo Guoping said.