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| Issue date:01/08/2008 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Aug 2008 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
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by Staff Reporters
Located in Wujiang city (吳江市), Jiangsu province (江蘇省), Shengze town (盛澤鎮) is known as one of the four major silk cities in China. The other three are Suzhou (蘇州市), Hangzhou (杭州市) and Huzhou (湖州市). Over 90% of the economic value in Shengze town is generated by its textile and apparel industry, especially the segments of silk-related and chemical fiber manufacturing.
Adjacent to the Taihu Lake (太湖) in Jiangsu province of East China, ancient Shengze developed itself as a major silk production area for over thousands of years. Today, the city is recognized as a famous silk town and an influential textile town in the country. Overall, China-made silk textile and apparel products account for more than 70% of the global market share.
Textile manufacturing shares 90% of local economy
The silk manufacturing activities are the cornerstone of Shengze's economy.
Riding on the development of traditional genuine silk weaving, manufacturers of Shengze extended to manufacture products made of artificial silk, synthetic fiber, real silk and simulated silk from the 1980s. A diversified supply chain was thus developed, from polyester chip production, spinning, knitting, printing, coating, garment-making to computerized embroidery and accessory-making.
The town currently has about 2,000 textile enterprises. Of which, some 80 enterprises each owns a total asset of more than RMB100 million.
These large enterprises collectively contribute to a total annual production capacity of two million tons of polyester filaments, six billion meters of textile fabrics, two billion meters of dyed and finished fabrics and 50 million pieces of garment and accessories. The textile industry accounts for over 90% of the aggregate economy of the whole Shengze town.
While diversifying its textile products, Shengze continues to develop its traditional silk sector.
The output of silkworm in Shengze town alone increased to 700,000 tons last year, which was roughly the same as the annual output of Jiangxi province (廣西省) in 2005, and the town manufactured genuine silk textiles of some 25 million meters. Shengze town is also a leading town with the most diversified range of quality silk-related products in the country.
Additionally, a group of local experienced silk manufacturers in the town developed their own brand names, such as "Chahua (茶花牌)" genuine silk products and "Yingchunhua (迎春花牌)" mulberry-silk products.
Moving towards an era of airjet production
Industry optimization is the key to enter the international market, and Shengze textile enterprises have been moving from century-old manual loom operations to the use of aquajet looms, airjet looms and rapier looms.
The town currently has more than 80,000 shuttleless looms and one third of them were imported from overseas machinery builders, making the town the most advanced silk production base in China with the highest density of shuttleless looms.
Some 4,000 high-end airjet looms were imported to Shengze in 2007. For the first time, the annual import quantity of airjet looms was higher than that of aquajet looms, indicating that more enterprises were producing higher end products with airjet looms in recent years, observed Niu Yongsheng (鈕永盛), Business Development Manager at a local private enterprise, Dongyu Printing & Dyeing (東宇印染).
The fast development of Shengze was also known among international players when 28 private textile enterprises in Wujiang city (mainly from Shengze town) made a collective order of buying in total 2,850 Somet airjet looms from the Italian ITEMA Group in May 2006.
This marked the largest single order ever made by ITEMA Group since its incorporation. The RMB800-million order, roughly at US$102 million in 2006, was a record in the history of the global textile machinery.
With upgraded machinery, more textile producers in Shengze turned to manufacture high-value fabrics for garment and home textile users with eco-friendly fabrics, shape memory fabrics, and fabrics with metal filaments. In addition, trendy fabrics were also popular in the town, making it another major city for releasing fabric trends after Shanghai in China.
In Shengze, currently about 38 enterprises produce trendy fabrics known in the country and six of them have their own product development centers.
Chemical fiber makers seek to differentiate
Chemical fiber is another important sector in Shengze, in addition to genuine silk, according to President of the Silk Association of Wujiang City (吳江市絲綢協會), Cai Xuexiong (蔡雪熊), considering that Shengze is now a key polyester filament distribution center in China.
The annual production capacity of melt spinning in the town reached about 1.8 million tons as three chemical fiber majors, Hengli (恒力), Shenghong (盛虹) and Yingxiang (鷹翔), expanded their production facilities last year.
Shengze spinning mills are mostly equipped with advanced machinery from such overseas suppliers as Zimmer and Barmag in Germany, as well as TMT in Japan. Hence, these spinning mills are able to produce over 100 types of differentiated polyester and chemical fiber products with an aggregate production capacity of about two million tons. The town is also the biggest production area in China with high product differentiation.
Shen Guoquan |
Take a chemical fiber maker, Shenghong (盛虹化纖), as an example. Known for its fine-denier filament manufacturing, it produces highly differentiated chemical fibers. Two of its fine-denier filament products, 75D/144F and 150D/288F, share the biggest market in the Chinese fine-denier filament supply.
The company further intensifies its product research by establishing two national-standard test centers with an investment of RMB30 million in recent years. The company is able to produce superfine chemical fiber with 0.2dpf, which is even finer than the finest natural silk.
"By targeting the high-end segment, our company is able to maintain growth amid the less favorable external environment," said Shen Guoquan (沈國全), Marketing Manager of Shenghong, adding that constant innovation was the core competitive advantage of the company.
The production of superfine fiber now accounts for about three-thirds of the total output of Shenghong and 85% of its total sales value.
These products, including superfine denier POY, are mainly absorbed in the domestic market for high-end garment and home textile applications.
Superfine fiber from Shenghong Chemical Fiber |
After expanding its production facility recently, Shenghong expected to produce 85,000 tons of superfine fibers, representing about 38% of China's superfine fiber market. The company ranked among the top 500 private enterprises in China last year.
Hengli adopts a new glossy filament production system with an annual capacity of 200 kilotons |
Another chemical fiber major, Hengli Group (恒力化纖), known for its expertise in the area of porous filaments and glossy filaments with its registered brand of "Hengyuan (恒遠)", is one of the designated chemical fiber suppliers of such international brands as Nike, Adidas and Toyota. Hengli Group therefore increased its domestic market share swiftly, especially in the regions of Haining (海寧), Changshu (常熟) and Changzhou (常州).
New glossy and functional fibers developed
Last year, the company launched a new ultra glossy filament product, called "Lusteron (亮光隆)", as well as a permanent moist-absorbent and dry-fast fiber product, "Coolpass (酷派絲)". These products are also exported to the Netherlands, Israel, Bulgaria, Chile, Greece and other areas.
Polyester chip manufacturers in Shengze also focused on differentiated products, such as fine-denier FDY yarns, polyester/cotton blended yarns, PPT fibers, polyester/nylon blended yarns, polyester/polyester blended yarns, CDP chips and soluble polyester chips.
Product differentiation and technical innovation are the buzzwords among chemical fiber enterprises in Shengze to strengthen their competitiveness in the global market.
The market index movements in Shengze also reflected the robust development of local chemical fiber enterprises.
While the "Price Index for Chemical Fiber Products (化纖產品價格指數)" and the "Market Sentiment Index (市場景氣指數)" in Shengze went downward early this year, the "Shengze 50 Index (盛澤50指數)", an index tracking the operations performance of the 50 largest silk and chemical fiber weaving enterprises in Shengze, remained upward. The "Shengze 50 Index" increased to 1147.50 points this June, up 90.04 points from 1057.46 points last August.
Environmental issues addressed
Enterprises in Shengze have also worked to reduce their environmental footprint during manufacturing activities.
For this reason, aquajet looms were replaced or relocated. A number of intermediate water recycling projects were established by dyeing and printing enterprises including Shenghong in the town.
New and effective water treatment facilities were built up, while conventional equipments such as O-shaped baths were phased out. Advanced equipment and technologies were also used to remove sulfur in manufacturing processes, according to industry players and associations.
Shengze ranks top in fabric trade of China
Shengze is renowned not only for its manufacturing activities of silk, but also for the trade of silk.
The "Chinese Oriental Silk Market (中國東方絲綢市場) " in Shengze, the largest silk market in China, is dubbed as the "No.1 Fabrics Market in China" due to its hustle and bustle year-round.
The "Chinese Oriental Silk Market" in Shengze registered a trade volume of RMB10.167 billion in Q1 this year |
Built more than two decades ago, the market hosts some 5,300 textile suppliers selling over 1,000 types of products, ranging from textile materials, genuine silk textiles, chemical fiber fabrics, decorative fabrics, home textiles, garment, textile machinery and accessories.
It ranks top among China's textile and garment markets in terms of turnover for consecutively three years since 2005, reaching a trade volume of RMB53.738 billion last year.
The market continued to record a steady growth of 27.52%, at RMB10.167 billion in the first quarter of 2008.
Sheng Hongming |
The dynamic trade in Shengze brought more business to the local manufacturing sector, which greatly flourished in these years, according to Sheng Hongming (盛紅明), Secretary of Shengze Town CPC Committee (盛澤鎮黨委書記).
Authorized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the "Chinese Oriental Silk Market" took a step further last November to generate an index and track the trade of Chinese silk textiles and chemical fibers, which serves as a reference index in the international market.
The Shengze authorities also registered two trademarks, namely "Shengze Weaving (盛澤織造)" and "Silk Dyeing and Finishing (綢都染整)", for the industry's collective promotion in the international market. |
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Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Credit goes to Adsale Industry Portal when used.
We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprint any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiries, please contact the Editorial Department. |
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