Since 2022, under the influence of unexpected factors such as the severe international political and economic situation, multiple outbreaks in China, high raw material prices and rising labor costs, the main economic indicators of the filament weaving industry have come under pressure and recovered, but the profitability is insufficient. Looking forward to the whole year, the long silk industry will still face a complex environment intertwined with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global inflation, tightening financial environment, repeated epidemic and other factors, and the smooth operation of the industry will still face certain pressure.

1. Periodical fluctuation of production

Since 2022, the silk weaving industry has been faced with some risks and challenges such as phased shutdown and production suspension in some areas, poor logistics operation, high raw material prices, high temperature and so on. The production and operation situation has fluctuated, especially since the second quarter, the industrial chain terminal has been weak as a whole, and the overall low-intensity operation situation has been maintained.

In order to accurately grasp the overall production and operation situation of the industry, the President of China Filament Weaving Association, led by Wang Jiayi, went to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other industrial agglomeration places for research, visited the local government, had face-to-face communication with enterprises, and had an in-depth understanding of the production and operation status of China's filament weaving enterprises under the epidemic situation and complex international political and economic environment.

It is known from the survey that since the second quarter, the overall opening rate in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province has been maintained at about 60%, which is at a historical low in recent years. The opening rate in the same period in 2019 was about 80%, and the opening rate in the same period after the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 was also about 70%, and the opening rate has decreased significantly this year. Specifically, from March to May, due to the impact of the epidemic, the production and operation of the entire textile industry and supply chain were greatly impacted. The filament weaving industry was faced with shrinking orders, poor logistics and other problems, resulting in shutdown and limited production. Since June, as the epidemic prevention and control situation in China has gradually stabilized and a series of "steady growth" policies and measures have taken effect, market confidence has gradually recovered and production has steadily recovered. From July to the middle of August, affected by high temperature, the power supply is insufficient and the internal and external demand is weak, so the start-up enthusiasm of enterprises is insufficient. Since the end of August, the power rationing was cancelled, the terminal orders also had a small seasonal pickup, the capacity utilization rate of filament weaving enterprises increased significantly, and the production and sales ratio improved greatly, showing obvious growth elasticity.

2. Corporate performance is under constant pressure

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to July, the operating revenue of the chemical fiber weaving and dyeing dyeing processing industry increased by 9.01% year on year; The total profit increased 11.63% year on year; Profit margin was 2.78%, up 0.07 percentage points from the same period last year. In terms of segmented industries, the operating income of chemical fiber weaving industry (on the regulations) increased by 8.29% year on year; The total profit increased 17.47% year on year; Profit margin was 2.70%, up 0.21 percentage points from the same period last year. The operating income of chemical fiber dyeing and finishing industry (in regulation) increased by 12.00% year on year; Total profits fell 4.99% year on year; Profit margin was 3.1 per cent, down 0.55 percentage points from a year earlier.

The above data show that the operating quality and efficiency of filament weaving industry have improved to some extent compared with last year, but according to the industry enterprises, the actual production and operation quality is obviously weaker than the current data performance. According to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, since 2022, the total profit growth of China's chemical fiber and weaving industry (in terms of rules) has continued to slow down, with a year-on-year growth of 43.15% in the first quarter, 22.66% in the first half of the year, and 17.47% from January to July. Compared with the same period in 2019, from January to July 2022, the total profit of chemical fiber weaving industry (in terms of regulations) decreased by 13.60%, the loss amount of loss-making enterprises increased by 54.42%, and the debt amount increased by 32.37%; The three expenses of the enterprise increased by 14.07%, of which the sales expenses increased by 10.77%, the management expenses increased by 19.80%, and the financial expenses increased by 4.54%; Accounts receivable rose 18.79%, while finished goods inventories rose 35.61%.

In conclusion, the economic efficiency and profitability of China's filament weaving industry have not yet recovered to the level before the epidemic, especially this year, the high price fluctuation of raw materials, the weak market power of demand side, logistics disruption and so on, which have caused the filament weaving enterprises to suffer from multiple squeeze.

3. Exports grew steadily

From January to July 2022, the export of China's chemical fiber filament weaving industry will not decrease. According to China Customs data, from January to July, the cumulative export value of China's chemical fiber filament fabric was 12.248 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 34.01% and 38.66% compared with the same period in 2019; The cumulative export volume was 12.854 billion meters, up 20.96% year-on-year and 30.39% compared with the same period in 2019. The average price was $0.95 / m, up 10.79% year-on-year and 6.34% from the same period in 2019.

In the survey, the main export of Chinese filament fabric is Southeast Asia, the Middle East and so on. In recent years, influenced by inflation pressure, exchange rate fluctuation, trade environment and other factors, Europe and the United States have turned to Vietnam, Turkey and other regions to place more orders, which promote the rapid development of downstream textile production in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other places, and there is a certain growth in the demand for Chinese fabrics.

Fourth, the current problems facing enterprises

According to the research results, due to the influence of uncertain and unstable factors such as international political conflicts and the multi-point distribution of COVID-19 in China, the domestic and foreign markets of the textile industry have been greatly impacted, and the development environment of the industry is complex and severe. The general difficulties in the production and operation of enterprises are shown in the following aspects:

Raw material price volatility affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, crude oil price fluctuations, lead to chemical fiber raw material price volatility, so the business is in order, cannot check and ratify the fabric price, profit space is difficult to grasp, you may encounter the substantial depreciation of inventory problems, raw material stock, some orders can only be delay or cancel, poor enterprise production planning. 2. Weak market demand From the perspective of domestic market, in the context of epidemic containment measures, weak consumer confidence and limited consumption scenarios, low and middle income consumer groups have reduced non-rigid expenditure, and the performance of clothing products is low. Under the static management of the epidemic, the home decoration industry is restricted, and the demand for wall cloth, curtains, bedding and other home textile products is insufficient. From the perspective of export markets, geopolitical tensions, Europe and the United States inflation "off the charts", the import of textiles tightening efforts. Many businesses report that orders are already shrinking compared with the same period last year, and the gap is wider than in 2019. 3. Transportation and logistics disruption Under the impact of the epidemic, logistics constraints and rising costs hinder the transportation of upstream raw materials on the one hand, affect the delivery date of products on the other hand, and bring risks to the production and operation of enterprises. 4. Homogeneity product competitive learned in the research, because of falling demand, ordinary low-grade products are facing unprecedented fierce competition, can only rely on low prices to pin inventory, production, to handle the sale of a breakthrough, when bad, relying on large-scale production enterprises tend to have difficulty, exposed the enterprise core competitive ability is insufficient. 5. Employment problem enterprise faced with the problem of employment, on the one hand, because of lack of order led to the decrease of the machine, the enterprise staff turnover has certain risk, on the other hand this year vacancy did not appear in previous years, although difficult, but the front-line workers, on average, older, shortage of young workers, more and more companies started to solve the lack of professional talents.

5. Highlights of development

Although the development environment is complex, there are still some enterprises bucking the trend and performing brilliantly. 1. Actively develop new products. During the survey, I learned that some backbone enterprises are actively transforming themselves to develop and produce the woven fabrics of cellulose fiber and chemical filament woven on air jet and rapier looms. This kind of elastic interwoven fabric, according to the need to choose woven warp and weft raw materials, including cotton covered spandex, polyester covered spandex, brocade covered spandex, cotton yarn, cotton blended yarn, all kinds of cellulose chemical fiber staple fiber and filament, etc., the product variety is rich, high added value, demand exceeds supply. 2. Focusing on the homogeneous competition in segmented areas will only lead to the low efficiency of enterprise resource input, and increasing the production of differentiated products is the way to survive. Outdoor clothing has always been an important application field of filament fabric, but the product level is different. Some enterprises only contented with conventional products such as production, silk spinning, but some enterprises accurately grasp the market demand, focus on the development and production of waterproof and moisture permeable fabrics, eventually become a partner of choice for foreign brands, deep tillage field of waterproof and moisture permeable, do fine and stronger, become the experts in a small segment of the market, establish a solid market position.

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