From the overall development in 2013, it becomes clear that the technical textiles sector is growing steadily in China as the demand continues to increase, stimulating more investment in the industry.

 

In terms of new business investment, in 2013 entrepreneurs gradually returned to investing rationally, and stopped blind expansion. Investment has been made in spunbound production line which is expected to increase the capacity of spunbound nonwovens by about 30,000 tons.

 

A few tons of high-quality products will eliminate poor productivity and low-quality products, thus leading to industrial upgrading.

 

In terms of technological advances, the year 2013 was not particularly outstanding for the Chinese technical textile industry. But, most companies have begun to plan their own development agenda and incorporate technological research and development in the next 3 to 5 years. 

 

In terms of statistics, while large-scale industrial enterprises earned profits, it was still relatively difficult for small and medium enterprises to earn profits in 2013. However, many entrepreneurs have begun to understand that it is no longer a simple price-based competition, and SMEs need to pay attention to skills development, and look for various ways to make special varieties of products.

 

For example, a simple non-woven membrane production is not enough to support small businesses to survive, and they need to diversify into production of other technical textiles.

 

In 2014, China’s technical textiles industry’s performance is likely to remain similar to the past year. Filtration and medical and hygiene products are likely to maintain high growth. The technical textiles products consumption in the domestic medical textiles market has reached 70 percent and with the relaxation in the single-child policy, the use of medical textiles is likely to expand further.

 

Geotextiles is another area where already large-scale production is being undertaken in China, but there is need to improve marketing capabilities. For example, the domestic production of protective wear for mine workers has been of good quality, but most of the workers in mines still put on ordinary uniforms, and this makes a case for preparing relevant national policies.

 

In automobile textiles, it is difficult to bag orders from foreign car manufacturing companies as they have their own suppliers. So, the effort is in the direction of penetrating into high-quality low-cost companies.