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In 2020, China's industrial textile industry is driven by the global demand for epidemic prevention materials, production, sales, exports and investment increased significantly, and the economic benefits of the industry improved significantly. In 2021, the production capacity of new investment in the industry will be gradually released, the demand for epidemic prevention materials will return to normal, the global market recovery under the new coronary pneumonia epidemic will take time, the development of the industry faces more uncertainties and risk factors. In order to grasp the situation of the industry in a timely and accurate manner, resolve the risk points in the operation of the industry, and provide targeted consulting suggestions for enterprises, industries and government departments, the China Industrial Textile Industry Association conducts spring online research in the industry.

1. Analysis of companies interviewed

After the questionnaire was distributed on February 23, a total of 410 questionnaires were collected as of March 2. Excluding duplicate and other invalid questionnaires, a total of 389 valid questionnaires were collected. From a regional perspective, the interviewed companies are mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong regions, accounting for 63.24 percent of the total. In addition, there are more than 10 interviewed companies in Guangdong, Hubei, Hebei and Fujian regions, and the interviewed companies basically cover my country. The main producing areas of industrial textiles. From the perspective of industry distribution, the interviewed companies are mainly distributed in the fields of medical and sanitary textiles, non-woven coils, safety protection textiles, filtration and separation textiles, and other fields of industrial textiles, as well as some companies in the fiber and equipment industries. Submit questionnaires, see Figure 1. Of the enterprises surveyed, 23.2 per cent were engaged in the production of masks, 12.85 per cent were engaged in the production of protective clothing, 6.43 per cent produced disinfectant wipes and 66.24 per cent were not engaged in the production of epidemic prevention materials.

In terms of scale, 12.08 percent of the companies surveyed had annual sales revenue of more than $1 billion, 7.46 percent had sales revenue between $0.5 billion and $1 billion, 33.68 percent had sales revenue between $0.1 billion and $0.5 billion, and 9.51 percent had annual sales revenue of less than $20 million, as shown in Table 1. Therefore, the geographical, industry and scale distribution of the interviewed enterprises is highly reasonable.

Table 1 The scale of annual sales revenue of the surveyed enterprises.

1. 2020Annual Business Review

Regarding the business situation in 2020, 60% of the surveyed companies said that their company's operating income and profits have increased to varying degrees. Among them, 20% of the companies said that the growth rate exceeded 50%, and nearly 30% of the companies said that the growth rate exceeded 10% but was less than 50%;20% of the companies said that the above two indicators were basically the same; the remaining 20% of enterprises said that their revenues and profits had declined to varying degrees, with about 7% of them saying that the decline was more than 20%, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Revenue and profit growth of surveyed companies in 2020

1. 2021Industry operation in January-February

From January to February 2021, due to the continuation of the demand for epidemic prevention materials, the overall operation of the industry is better than that of the same period in previous years. The interviewed enterprises are highly satisfied with the operating conditions in the first two months. 13.4 percent of the enterprises think that the current operating conditions are very good, more than half of the enterprises think that the operating conditions are relatively good, and nearly one-third of the enterprises think that the operating conditions are average, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Business Situation of Respondent Enterprises in January-February 2021

For the current order situation, enterprises generally said that the order volume has increased, the domestic order index is 66, but the international order index is only 57. Specific to the situation of enterprise orders in hand, 37.89 percent of the interviewed enterprises said that they had relatively stable and continuous order sources, nearly 10 percent said that the orders in hand could support production for more than 3 months, 18.04 percent of the orders could support production within 3 months, and 27.06 percent of the orders could support production within 1 month, 7.73 percent of companies said orders in hand could support half a month of production. (Note: The indices in this report all have a critical point of 50, above 50 indicates that the indicator is in an upward range, and the higher the index value, the higher the growth rate).

Thanks to the initiative to benefit the local New Year across the country, the resumption of work and production by enterprises in 2021 is significantly better than in previous years. By the end of February, nearly three-quarters of the companies surveyed said that almost all workers had arrived, and 16.49 percent said that about 75 percent of workers had arrived. 38.92 per cent of the companies surveyed are already producing at full capacity, 34.28 per cent have recovered 80 per cent of their production capacity, 60 per cent have recovered to 16.24 per cent, and about 10 per cent have recovered less than 40 per cent of their production capacity, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Capacity recovery of interviewed enterprises

Since 2021, the prices of major raw materials have entered an upward channel, with the raw material price index 81,70% of the enterprises surveyed indicating that the prices of raw materials have risen to varying degrees, and nearly 30% of enterprises indicating an increase of more than 10%. Enterprise labor costs continue to rise over the years, labor cost index 74. The rise in raw material costs and labor costs has led to varying degrees of increases in product prices. The price index of finished products of enterprises is 63, which is lower than the raw material price and labor cost index.

1. Impact of overseas markets on the industry

In this survey, the interviewed enterprises scored the dependence of their business on overseas markets, with 0 indicating very low and 10 indicating very high. The average score of the interviewed enterprises on the dependence of overseas markets was 4.1, which was in a low range. In terms of fields, filtration, transportation, geotechnical construction, paper-making textiles, leather-based fabrics, and special textiles are less dependent on overseas markets, mainly for the domestic market; while medical and health, safety protection textiles, and thread and rope nets, interlining The dependence on overseas markets is relatively high, but the scores are all lower than 6. The dependence of nonwoven coils on overseas markets is at the industry average, as shown in Figure 5.

However, we should also note that China's exports of masks, protective clothing and isolation clothing will exceed US $60 billion in 2020, especially after May 2020, the proportion of overseas orders from enterprises such as masks and protective clothing is very high, and changes in the demand for overseas epidemic prevention materials will have a greater impact on the operations of these enterprises.

Figure 5 Dependence of Industrial Textiles on Overseas Markets

1. 2021Annual Forecast

For the development of the whole year of 2021, the confidence index of the surveyed enterprises reached 71%, and 67.78% of the enterprises expressed optimism about the development of the whole year. In terms of sub-fields, enterprises in the fields of geotechnical construction, safety protection, structural enhancement, filtration and separation, rope net, papermaking and special textiles are more optimistic about their business expectations in 2021. However, due to the rapid growth in 2020 and the slowdown in demand for epidemic prevention materials, medical and health textile and nonwoven enterprises are more cautious in their forecasts for the whole year.

From the perspective of enterprise scale, large enterprises are more optimistic about the forecast of the industry for the whole year, and enterprises above the scale whose annual sales revenue is less than 0.1 billion yuan are the least optimistic about the situation for the whole year. Specific to the individual indicators, the annual domestic order index of the surveyed enterprises was 69 and the international order index was 67, both slightly higher than the level of the previous two months; the annual production index was 70, the income index was 71, and the profit index was 63.

The confidence of enterprises is also reflected in the intention of investment in fixed assets. 63.66 percent of the companies surveyed said they have new investment plans in 2021, with planned investment projects focusing on capacity expansion, upgrading of existing equipment and new plants. Enterprises with investment plans are mainly concentrated in the field of medical textiles and nonwovens.

For the current difficulties faced by enterprises in the process of operation, the shortage of labor, the difficulty of overseas market expansion and the decline of market demand are the three most selected by enterprises. The difficulties in purchasing raw and auxiliary materials and the shortage of funds are also the problems reflected by enterprises, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 The main difficulties faced by enterprises today.

As for the external challenges faced by enterprises, the problems reflected by enterprises mainly focus on the large fluctuations in raw material prices and the excessive production capacity of the industry, and the difficulties in recruiting workers, the change of RMB exchange rate and the decline in demand for epidemic prevention materials are also the problems reflected by enterprises,

In the face of complex environment and fierce competition, the competitive advantages of the interviewed enterprises are mainly concentrated in innovation ability, customer relationship, product quality and management team. About 20% of the enterprises each believe that the enterprises are in a sustainable growth segment and the enterprises have cost advantages.

1. conclusions and recommendations

Overall, the industrial textile companies participating in this survey are relatively satisfied with the operating conditions from January to February 2021, and have high confidence in the operating conditions for the whole year.

China's industrial textile industry is not highly dependent on the international market, and the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has had a significant negative impact on the international market demand for non-epidemic prevention materials. With the global vaccination of new coronary pneumonia vaccine, the epidemic will be alleviated to a certain extent on a global scale, the demand for epidemic prevention materials will decline significantly, the demand for non-epidemic prevention materials will pick up, the relevant enterprises should reasonably adjust market expectations, accelerate the adjustment of product structure and the development of new products.

Raw material prices will rise sharply in 2021 due to loose global monetary policy, optimistic expectations in the post-epidemic era, and some occasional factors. Short-term fluctuations in raw material prices will cause problems for the operation of enterprises, but in the long run, the entire industrial chain will share the pressure of rising raw materials.

At present, some meltblown nonwovens and mask production lines have been withdrawn from the market, and it is expected that more such production capacity will be withdrawn as the epidemic further eases. New spunbonded and spunlaced nonwovens production capacity will be gradually released in the next 2 years, the industry needs to continue to expand new markets and new applications, adjust the pace of capacity expansion, reduce the impact of large-scale capacity increase on the industry.

With the reduction of the working population in our country and the reduction of the willingness of the younger generation to engage in manufacturing, the difficulty of recruiting and the high cost of labor will be the common problems faced by the entire manufacturing industry. On the one hand, enterprises should strengthen the intelligent transformation of production lines, reduce the number of general workers and reduce labor intensity; on the other hand, they should strengthen the training of employees, help them improve their vocational skills, continuously improve their working conditions and treatment, and enhance the attractiveness of enterprises to workers.

Industrial textiles are technology-oriented industries, and product performance, quality and cost advantages formed through technological innovation are the key to winning in the fierce market competition. Enterprises need to strengthen technological innovation and professional personnel training, vigorously promote the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing, make up for the shortcomings of the industry, promote the upgrading of industrial formats, and enhance the independent and controllable ability of the supply chain.