Lin Yunfeng, President Of China Knitting Industry Association: Develop Towards Innovation And Competitiveness

As an important part of the textile industry, China's knitting industry has constantly strengthened its industrial innovation ability and market competitiveness on the development path with science and technology, fashion, and green as the goal. Lin Yunfeng, president of China Knitting Industry Association, said in an exclusive interview with reporters recently that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has outlined the overall goal of China's development in 2035, which also provides a fundamental direction for the knitting industry to create a new picture of the industry. China's knitting industry should upgrade from a traditional processing and manufacturing industry to an advanced manufacturing and fashion industry, build a high-quality modern industrial system, and make new contributions to the development of the industry.

　　 Actively integrate into the construction of Chinese style modernization

Reporter: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese style modernization. As an important part of the textile industry, what role will the knitting industry play in the great process of Chinese modernization?

Lin Yunfeng: Faced with the pressure of the world economy's growth rate continuing to decline in stagflation, China's knitting industry has made concerted efforts from both sides of supply and demand, showing strong resilience. From January to September 2022, there will be 6606 enterprises above designated size in the knitting industry, with a total revenue of 504.355 billion yuan, up 2.76% year on year. From January to November, China's export of knitted products totaled US $106.04 billion, up 7.07% year on year, and the annual export is expected to exceed US $110 billion, a record high.

As an important part of the real economy, the development of the knitting industry resonates with the prosperity of the country, the revitalization of the nation and the happiness of the people at the same time, and has made its own contributions.

Knitting industry can promote regional development and common prosperity. Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Industrial development drives regional prosperity and people's prosperity, and is an important force to narrow the regional gap. Knitting industry is characterized by short process, small investment and quick effect. It is the main force of the textile and clothing industry's gradient transfer from the eastern coast to the central and western regions, and has driven the economic development of the central and western regions and northeast regions. In the past 10 years, the scale and quality of knitting industry clusters with counties and towns as the main body have significantly improved. At present, China's knitting industry has 35 industrial clusters named by China Textile Federation, with a total of about 55000 enterprises and 1.43 million employees. In 2021, the main business income of the knitting industry cluster will grow by 17.5% year on year, with an average growth of 3.9% in two years; The total profit increased by 39.5% year on year, with an average increase of 13.9% in two years; The export delivery value increased by 14.9% year on year, with an average growth of 2.4% in two years; The per capita income of the knitting industry increased by 36.6% from 393000 yuan in 2012 to 537000 yuan in 2021. The rapid growth of the industry has made outstanding contributions to absorbing urban and rural employment, prospering the county economy and narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas.

Knitting industry has the potential to cast advanced manufacturing and big country heavy goods. The innovation of new materials, new technologies, new equipment, new products and new models is accelerating in the form of clustering and integration, which is profoundly changing the knitting industry ecology. The technological progress and production process breakthrough of the three major equipment of the round knitting machine, flat knitting machine and warp knitting machine have promoted the weaving of knitted fabrics, the fashion of knitted products, the intellectualization and technology of knitted goods, etc. The trend of all things to be woven is more obvious, and the application boundary of knitting continues to extend, from the traditional clothing oriented to the clothing, household and industrial fields, Especially in the application fields of national major projects, such as aerospace, deep-sea, medical, mining and other fields, the application has gradually played an important role, and is a part of the modern advanced manufacturing system.

Knitting industry is promising to achieve the goal of double carbon and green development. With the new changes in economic form, consumer market, global trade, industrial investment and other fields, sustainable development has accelerated in all aspects of the knitting industry chain, including design and research, raw material selection, production and manufacturing, consumption and use, and recycling. Through the promotion of cleaner production, recycling of waste textiles, the use of environmentally friendly dyes and chemicals and advanced processes, production into the park, centralized heating, water supply, centralized sewage, solid waste treatment, etc., the green environmental protection work in the knitting industry has achieved remarkable results. At the same time, green design, green products, green factories, and green park construction pilot demonstration were carried out in the industry, and the green low-carbon circular development path was taken, achieving a win-win situation for economic development and environmental protection.

Knitting industry is promising to build internal and external circulation and open cooperation. In the past 10 years, under the initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road", China's textile industry has accelerated the pace of global distribution. From 2013 to 2021, the total foreign investment of the industry reached US $11.08 billion. Knitting industry, as a pilot industry to join the international cycle, has obvious advantages in global layout and risk resistance from yarn, fabric to garment brands. Since the beginning of this century, knitting enterprises represented by industry leaders such as Shenzhou, Dongdu, Jifa, Jialinjie, Sanqiang, AB, Tongniu, Beide, Jiansheng, Xurong, Tairong, Hengtian, Luwang, etc. have gone out to carry out overseas layout, optimize the allocation of domestic and foreign market resources, and improve the stability and competitiveness of the industrial chain supply chain. Especially in the past two years, the export scale of China's knitting products has remained at a historical high, which shows that the knitting industry plays an important role in opening up.

　　 Actively promote the new industrialization transformation

Reporter: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that we should promote new industrialization and accelerate the construction of a manufacturing power. How will the knitting industry optimize its industrial structure and promote industrial modernization?

Lin Yunfeng: The responsibility for Chinese style modernization is great, the mission is glorious, and the time is running out. The knitting industry should earnestly integrate its thoughts and actions into the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, adhere to the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, speed up the promotion of new industrialization, speed up intelligence, digitization, fashion, and greening, and improve the efficiency and smoothness of the industrial chain, Promote the modernization and high-quality development of the knitting industry.

The knitting industry should adhere to innovation driven and promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure. The optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure is the only way to improve the quality of the supply system of the knitting industry and promote the industrial chain to accelerate its progress towards the middle and high end of the global value chain. The industry should realize the upgrading of the industrial foundation and the modernization of the industrial chain through scientific and technological innovation, collaborative innovation, and continuous innovation throughout the industrial chain, open up new fields and new tracks for development, and constantly shape new driving forces and new advantages for development. The knitting industry needs to increase the investment in scientific research, accelerate the key core technologies such as knitting equipment and production process through collaborative innovation of the industrial chain; Combine with material science, biological science and digital technology, and carry out product innovation around differentiation, functionalization and intelligence; Research the changes of market and consumption behavior, and explore the market space under the segmentation scenario; Accelerate the integration of online and offline channels and carry out omni channel operation; At the same time, it is necessary to promote the innovation of user centered and distributed value sharing model oriented organization mode.

Reporter: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we should adhere to the theme of promoting high-quality development, organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with the deepening of supply side structural reform, enhance the endogenous power and reliability of the domestic cycle, and improve the quality and level of the international cycle. How will the knitting industry be promoted?

Lin Yunfeng: Knitting industry should improve both inside and outside, and optimize the industry's dual cycle development pattern. China's domestic consumption demand has entered the stage of quality improvement and upgrading, which provides a huge market space for the development of the industry. We need to deeply implement the "three product strategy", "increase varieties, improve quality, and create brands", and promote high-quality development of the industry through the supply side structural reform to meet the growing demand for a better life of the people. Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and international geopolitical conflicts, the global supply chain is undergoing profound adjustment and restructuring, and the global layout and regional layout have become an important direction of supply chain adjustment. The industry should take advantage of the "Belt and Road", RCEP and other countries' top-level design and high-quality free trade agreements, tariff concession commitments, cumulative rules of origin, trade liberalization and facilitation measures, which are conducive to resolving trade risks faced by the industry. The industry can further promote cross-border integration of the industrial chain and global breakthrough in the value chain, optimize the layout of productivity and domestic supply structure, Integrate the required element resources and market space in a larger scope.

Reporter: The report of the 20th CPC National Congress proposed to accelerate the development of the digital economy and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. What is the direction of digital transformation of knitting industry?

Lin Yunfeng: Digital innovation is the trend of the times. We need to accelerate the intelligent development of the industry. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation has pushed the global industry from the era of automation to the era of intelligence. The digital transformation of the whole process, the whole scene, the whole contact, and the whole life cycle, realizing data driven, rapid response, flexible manufacturing, and improving total factor productivity, has become an important direction of industry transformation and upgrading. The industry should embrace the digital economy, and use cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and other common basic technologies to drive the industry's equipment update, process reengineering, organizational restructuring and intelligent product research and development. Use digital twin, 3D printing, robot and other technologies to transform the existing manufacturing paradigm. Increase the application of intelligent equipment and technology, and promote line forming, weaving and sewing turning, automatic yarn change (drum), automatic cloth dropping, intelligent cutting, intelligent storage, 3D design, etc. Carry out big data consumer behavior analysis, trend prediction, digital marketing, large-scale personalized customization, and improve consumer user experience. Knitting industry is linked by knitting technology and has the natural synergy characteristics of the whole industry chain, which is conducive to the transformation from traditional manufacturing industry to digital intelligence industry.

　　 People oriented to achieve sustainable development

Reporter: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we should accelerate the green transformation of the development mode. Promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is the key to achieving high-quality development. How to understand and practice knitting industry?

Lin Yunfeng: The industry should accelerate the green transformation and lead the sustainable development of the industry. Green sustainable development is not only an inevitable trend of consumption mode change under the logic of economic development, but also a hard constraint under the background of "dual carbon". The industry should attach importance to the research, development and use of environmentally friendly degradable materials such as bio based fibers. We will strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction, and treat central heating, water supply, sewage, and solid waste. We will promote the recycling of waste textiles, replace coal with gas, transform natural gas boilers into low nitrogen combustion, install dust removal and desulfurization facilities in boilers, and discharge waste water and waste gas up to standard. Promote cleaner production, and adopt environmentally friendly dyes and chemicals and advanced processes such as less salt, less water dyeing, supercritical carbon dioxide dyeing, liquid ammonia finishing, etc. The industry should take circular fashion as a strategic opportunity to promote green design, green technology, green materials, green manufacturing, green scenes, and green consumption, so as to realize the sustainable development of the knitting industry.

Reporter: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that talent is the first resource. It is the long-term development plan of the country and the nation to thoroughly implement the strategy of strengthening the country with talents and cultivate a large number of high-quality talents with both ability and integrity. How should the knitting industry make efforts in talent team building?

Lin Yunfeng: The industry should vigorously promote talent construction and build strategic support for industry modernization. Achieve with merit and expand with talents. The industry should improve the talent strategic layout, adhere to the construction of scientific research, design and skilled personnel system, and cultivate a talent team with certain scale, reasonable structure and excellent quality. The industry should increase publicity, actively guide textile colleges and universities to pay attention to the development of knitting industry, carry out scientific research on knitting, and set up knitting professional courses. Through the series of knitting design competitions, we will define and publicize knitting designers, promote colleges and universities to pay attention to the teaching of knitting design, train and transport knitting designer talents for the industry, and create a high-level authoritative design display platform for social knitting designers. With vocational skill competition and vocational skill appraisal as the starting point, the competition will promote training, learning and training, and cultivate high-quality skilled talents with "craftsmanship spirit" for the industry.

True knowledge is hard to come by, and there is no royal road when the peak is high. At present, China's knitting industry is in a critical period of structural adjustment, quality improvement and efficiency increase, and also in a critical stage of changing from big to strong, climbing over obstacles. We should hold high the great banner of Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, deeply understand the experience and enlightenment of the "five only ways", seize opportunities, face challenges, and empower the knitting industry with a modern industrial system, Effectively translate the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress into a powerful driving force and vivid practice to promote high-quality development of the industry.

(Source: China Textile News/reporter Wang Danyang)