The bottleneck in the development of the textile industry is expected to break through

In the first half of this year, the industrial added value of textile enterprises above designated size in Fujian Province increased by 11.4% year-on-year, 4.6 percentage points higher than the same industry in the country. Enterprises above designated size have achieved a cumulative main business income of 103.662 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, 2.3 percentage points higher than the same industry in China; The total profit achieved was 11.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, 3.5 percentage points higher than that of the same industry nationwide.
Faced with global textile overcapacity, reduced domestic and international market demand, and increasing labor costs and recruitment difficulties, the textile industry, as a representative of labor-intensive industries, has encountered development bottlenecks. In this regard, Fujian Province has actively followed up the strategies of "Industry 4.0" and "Made in China 2025", issued preferential policies to encourage enterprises to configure new automation equipment, and implemented the technical transformation project of "machine replacement" to make the production process intelligent and become an important weapon for the transformation and upgrading of textile enterprises.
Intelligent production process
Recently, Fujian Shenyuan New Material Co., Ltd. signed a technology license agreement for the second phase of the caprolactam project with DSM, the world's top company, to accelerate the construction of the world's largest caprolactam production base; This month, the most advanced fully automated high-speed production line in the domestic nylon industry will be officially put into operation at Fujian Jingfeng Technology Co., Ltd., sounding the new horn of "machine replacement"
With the disappearance of the demographic dividend, it is increasingly difficult to recruit workers and expensive to hire workers, which has become a problem puzzling textile enterprises. In this context, many textile enterprises actively implement "machine replacement" to transform and upgrade, improve quality and efficiency.
Changle, Jinjiang and other counties (cities) are the main gathering places for the textile industry in Fujian Province. Changle Liheng Nylon Technology Co., Ltd. is striving to build the world's largest nylon polymerization and spinning production enterprise. According to Chen Lijun, the deputy general manager of the company, due to the application of semi-automatic new equipment, the number of workers in the workshop has decreased by more than 50% compared to before.
Similarly, at Jinjiang Longfeng Company, automation reform is also being carried out with great strides. In the first phase of the Longfeng New Industrial Park, the Tsuda loom imported from Japan operates at high speed, with one person inspecting 100 equipment, and the workshop manpower is greatly reduced. It is reported that the traditional production factory with over 1000 water jet looms requires about 700 people to maintain normal operation, but now only 200 people are needed.
There are still many such enterprises, and Fujian Jinxing Group actually started planning for "machine replacement" as early as 2011 when its factory expanded. The fully automatic packaging line is only the first step taken by the company in this regard. Currently, the packaging of other specifications of the company's products and the research and introduction of automation equipment for the previous process are also on the agenda.
Industry insiders say that "machine replacement" not only solves the shortage of labor and alleviates the pressure brought by the continuous rise in labor costs, but also improves production efficiency with intelligent equipment, reduces costs per unit time, and increases profit margins.
Industry breaks through against the trend
Since the beginning of this year alone, more than 30 new products have been launched. Among them, characteristic products such as nylon cool yarn, flat yarn, and split fiber mother yarn have been popular in the market, and the added value of the products has increased by more than 10% compared to conventional products. "The person in charge of a textile enterprise in Changle introduced.
It is understood that many textile enterprises have tasted the sweetness of "machine replacement". In the first two quarters of this year, Fujian Xingang Textile Machinery Co., Ltd.'s sales increased by 10% compared to the same period last year, achieving a counter trend growth. The predecessor of Xingang Textile Machinery Company was Changle Hangang Knitwear Co., Ltd. Under the guidance and support of the government, the enterprise extended its industrial chain to upstream equipment manufacturing, established Xingang Textile Machinery Company, and independently developed domestically produced warp knitting machines, breaking the dependence on imports for warp knitting machines. At present, the warp knitting machines produced by Xingang account for 60% of the national market share.
As a leading textile and chemical fiber enterprise in Jinjiang, Zhengqi High Fiber, a subsidiary of Fujian Jinxing Group, introduced the first fully automatic packaging equipment in the Fujian chemical fiber industry from Taiwan in 2014. With a production capacity of nearly 400 tons per day, it saved nearly 120 employees in the packaging process and improved the quality of product packaging.
In Shishi, the application of industrial robots has become an important highlight of enterprise transformation and upgrading, with results exceeding expectations. The Shishi clothing industry began the application of industrial robots last year. It is understood that before the cutting work in clothing production, 2-3 workers need to lay the cloth, first folding it into 50-200 layers. Each layer needs to be smoothed by workers with their hands or sticks, which is time-consuming and laborious. Replacing manual cloth laying with robots not only greatly reduces the labor intensity of workers, but also improves production efficiency.
'Machine replacement' brings out new kinetic energy. Data shows that in Changle, over 85% of local cotton textile enterprises have reached the leading level in China in terms of equipment. The "machine replacement" has reduced the employment level of enterprises from 58 people/10000 ingots before the technical transformation to 36 people/10000 ingots, a decrease of nearly 40%. Under the same conditions, the new automated production line will reduce labor by about 50% and energy consumption by about 30%. Each ton of nylon filament can save 800 yuan in cost and significantly improve production efficiency, "said the head of a textile enterprise in Changle.
Enhancing the endogenous driving force of the industry
The insiders pointed out that the textile industry is a labor-intensive industry. With the gradual disappearance of China's demographic dividend, transformation and upgrading are urgent. Mechanization, automation, and intelligence have become effective ways to transform traditional industries, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, reduce personnel and increase efficiency, and alleviate recruitment difficulties, thus opening the curtain of "machine replacement" in China. Especially at present, in the production process of textile and clothing, there is insufficient optimization of production and technology. It is crucial to improve the integration of industrial control and application through "machine replacement", and to improve the information technology level of the industry as soon as possible, which is crucial for industrial upgrading.
"The traditional development model of relying on resource consumption and continuous input of labor force has become unsustainable. As the national economy has entered the New Normal, the endogenous power of the textile industry must be constantly strengthened." The relevant person in charge of Fujian Textile Industry Association said.
It is understood that the governments of Fujian Province, Quanzhou City, and Jinjiang City have successively introduced multiple measures to encourage enterprises to purchase automation equipment. The People's Government of Jinjiang City proposed in the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Textile Shoe and Clothing Enterprises" that if the investment in intelligent transformation of textile shoe and clothing enterprises is more than 500000 yuan, a financial subsidy of 10% of their actual transformation cost will be given, with a maximum subsidy limit of 1 million yuan. Last year, Jinjiang launched relevant work to promote the intelligent technology transformation and application of traditional enterprise production lines.
For the "machine replacement" craze in textile enterprises, it is also necessary to divide the problem into two parts. Machine replacement may be an opportunity for some enterprises, but the improvement of equipment digitization and intelligence makes it more difficult. The comprehensive integration from process flow to overall production process makes it more challenging.
In response, experts point out that textile enterprises need to adapt to local conditions and do not necessarily need to be in place in one step. We need to continuously optimize the differentiation of our own products through technological innovation.