Economic operation analysis of China's technical textiles industry in 2021

I. Economic operation of the technical textiles industry in 2021

In 2020, China's industrial textile industry experienced a round of high growth due to the demand for epidemic prevention materials, which accumulated a large base for the development of the industry in 2021. 2021, the external environment became more complex and severe, the rise of commodity prices and shipping costs changed the cost structure of the industry, the decline in demand for epidemic prevention materials and the huge production capacity led to increased competition in the industry, although the non-epidemic prevention materials field Although the rebound momentum is strong, the whole industry presents a deep adjustment, and the growth rate of main economic indicators drops significantly.

According to the research of 360 sample enterprises by China Industrial Textiles Association (hereinafter referred to as "the Association"), the prosperity index of the industry in 2021 is 73.8, which is significantly lower compared with the same period in 2020 (80.4), but still in a higher prosperity range (Figure 1).

Figure 1 prosperity index of China's industrial textile industry in recent years 

(A) production to maintain stable operation

"Fourteenth Five-Year" opening year, China's industrial textiles industry continue to adhere to the concept of high-quality development, efforts to overcome the release of new production capacity, market demand decline, domestic energy consumption and dual control of electricity production restriction policy and other adverse factors, the production of major products basically remain stable. According to the association's statistics, the total amount of fiber processing in China's technical textile industry reached 19.385 million tons in 2021, up 1.2% year-on-year; as the main raw material for technical textiles, the output of China's nonwoven fabric was 8.205 million tons, down 6.6% year-on-year.

(II) The economic benefits decline significantly

According to the data of National Bureau of Statistics, the operating revenue of enterprises above the scale of industrial textiles industry (not full-caliber) in 2021 dropped 13.3% year-on-year, with an average growth of 13.9% in two years; the total profit dropped 58.7% year-on-year, with an average growth of 19.2% in two years; the operating profit margin was 5.5%, down 6.1 percentage points year-on-year.

In 2021, with the fall in sales and prices of products related to epidemic prevention materials, the industry's profit level has declined significantly, but from historical data, the industry's operating profit margin is still in a healthy and stable operating range. since 2011, the industry's operating profit margin has been maintained at about 5.5%, reaching a historical high of 11.4% in 2020 driven by the demand for epidemic prevention materials; entering In 2021, as the demand for epidemic prevention materials ebbed and the market returned to rationality, the industry's operating profit margin gradually returned to the operating range before the epidemic, with an annual operating profit margin of 5.5% (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 China's industrial textile industry above-scale enterprise profit margin (unit: %) 

By field, the main economic indicators of the field related to the epidemic prevention materials declined significantly due to the decline in market demand and the impact of the high base figure in 2020. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, the operating revenue and total profit of nonwoven enterprises above the scale in China fell by 22.2% and 69.8% year-on-year, respectively; the operating revenue and total profit of other industrial textiles above the scale in which medical and health, filtration and geotechnical textiles are located fell by 20.2% and 62.5% year-on-year, respectively.

The recovery momentum is obvious in the field of the low relevance to the prevention of epidemic materials. Rope, rope, cable enterprises above the scale of business income and total profit were up 8.8% and 19.1% year-on-year; textile tape, cord fabric enterprises above the scale of business income and total profit were up 18.2% and 72.7% year-on-year; canopy, canvas enterprises above the scale of business income and total profit were up 23.0% and 38.7% year-on-year (see Table 1).

(C) investment gradually return to rationality

In early 2020, due to the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic to promote the significant expansion of the nonwoven fabric industry capacity, the investment fever in the industry has decreased after entering 2021, and some enterprises have canceled the capacity investment plan determined in 2020. According to the association's statistics, the fixed asset investment of enterprises in China's nonwovens industry dropped 63% year-on-year in 2021.

Enterprises are very active in investment in environment-friendly products, green production and intelligent manufacturing. 2021 enterprises are more active in investment in high-speed spinning and fusing composite production lines, meltblown wood pulp composite nonwoven production lines and wood pulp spunlace nonwoven production lines. In the context of the country's efforts to strengthen infrastructure and ecological civilization, high-end geosynthetics, high-performance filtration materials are also the focus of industry investment, the domestic 3 polypropylene spunbond needle punching geotextile production line has now all been put into production.

(D) the export of epidemic prevention materials fell sharply

1、Export situation

According to China Customs data, the export value of China's industrial textile industry in 2021 (customs 8-digit HS code statistics) reached 53.87 billion U.S. dollars, down 44.9% year-on-year, with a two-year average growth of 40.4%.

From the point of view of export value, unlisted textile manufactured products (mainly masks) is currently the industry's largest export products, exports of $12.94 billion, but because of the significant drop in foreign demand for masks its exports have dropped 75.2% compared to the same period in 2020; overseas markets for felt/tents, coated fabrics for industrial use, wire and rope (cable) with textiles, synthetic leather and leather-based fabrics, industrial fiberglass products, etc. The demand for traditional products was strong, with exports reaching $4.40 billion, $4.27 billion, $3.06 billion, $2.35 billion and $2.12 billion, up 49.6%, 34.9%, 23.4%, 42.2% and 32.3% year-on-year, respectively.

Exports of nonwovens and related products show different trends. 2021 China exported 1.389 million tons of nonwoven rolls worth $4.54 billion, down 1.3% and 10.0% year-on-year, respectively, with the export volume basically unchanged from the historical high in 2020, indicating that global demand for Chinese nonwovens is still relatively strong; disposable sanitary products exported $2.52 billion, up 11.3%; non-woven protective clothing (including medical protective clothing) exports of $2.18 billion, down 80.3%; exports of cotton, gauze, bandages worth $980 million, down 2.1% (see Table 2). 

2, the import situation

In 2021, with the significant decline in import demand for epidemic prevention materials and the gradual recovery of overseas industrial textile production capacity, the industry's import product structure has changed. According to China Customs data, the import value of China's industrial textiles industry in 2021 (customs 8-digit HS code statistics) was US$7.22 billion, down 11.4% year-on-year.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China's public health emergency material security system has been improved and perfected, and the current domestic epidemic prevention material reserves are sufficient, so the import demand for masks and protective clothing dropped significantly, and the import value of unlisted textile manufactured products (mainly masks) and protective clothing made of non-woven fabric (including medical protective clothing) dropped 79.6% and 93.0% year-on-year, respectively.

Second, 2022 industrial textile industry development outlook

2022 is the year of the 20th Party Congress and the implementation of the "14th Five-Year Plan" to start the next year. At present, the continued proliferation of mutated new crown virus, stimulus policy marginal withdrawal and supply chain bottleneck repair slow and other multiple factors make the global economic recovery is still unstable, the domestic economic development is also facing demand contraction, supply shock, the expected weakening of the triple pressure. Looking ahead to 2022, China's industrial textiles industry will face a more complex environment, but the positive factors to promote the development of the industry has not changed, expanding domestic demand, ecological and environmental protection, health China and other strategies for the in-depth implementation of the industrial textiles industry will bring huge development space, the industry will come out of the adjustment period back into the growth channel.

In 2022, the industrial textile industry will continue to adhere to the new development concept, high-quality development as the theme, to meet the demand for high-performance textiles in all parts of the national economy for the purpose of expanding high-quality supply, maintaining a balance between supply and demand, promote industry science and technology innovation, industrial chain upgrading, digital transformation, green development and quality improvement, and promote high-quality nonwovens, safety protection and emergency rescue textiles, and High-performance textiles for aerospace, marine industry and fishery textiles, medical and health textiles, transportation textiles, geotechnical construction textiles and filtration textiles in eight key areas of technology upgrade, capacity upgrade, brand upgrade, to high-end, digital, green continued to advance.

Note 1: The "two-year average growth rate" mentioned in this article refers to the compound average growth rate calculated by comparing the data of 2021 with the data of the same period in 2019.