As one of the backbone forces of traditional foreign trade, the textile industry has always played an important role in the development process of China's foreign trade. From self-sufficiency to "covering the world with clothing", China's textile industry has achieved remarkable development through wind and rain. The latest data shows that in the first four months of this year, in the face of a severe and complex external environment, China's textile and garment export volume reached 90.47 billion US dollars, which is at a historically high level. Among them, textiles have demonstrated strong resilience with a year-on-year growth rate of 3.8%, and the international competitiveness of China's textile industry has continued to rise.

Behind the macro figures lies the concerted efforts of one micro-entity after another. Through interviews with foreign trade enterprises in the textile industry, journalists have learned that Chinese textile enterprises with strong capabilities and responsibilities persist in product innovation and process research and development, moving towards innovation and green transformation. Comfortable, healthy and environmentally friendly products are widely favored by the market, reflecting the path map of the accelerated transformation and upgrading of China's textile industry supply chain.

New clothes conceal "new craftsmanship".

In Zhoucun, known as the "Silk Capital" of China, Zibo Dalianfang Silk Group Co., Ltd. stands out as an "all-round" enterprise - it is the only comprehensive silk production and operation enterprise in the country that integrates the complete industrial chain of silk reeling, weaving, dyeing and finishing, tube silk dyeing, long wheel roller dyeing, home textile products, silk handicrafts and domestic and foreign trade.

This year, the company has developed and launched two new products: machine-washable silk fabric and silk fungus grass fabric. Huang Qianru, a salesperson of the company, told the International Business Daily reporter that the machine-washable silk fabric is a product developed through the silk protein improvement and penetration composite biotechnology. It has the characteristics of being less prone to wear, pilling, whitening and shrinking. After special treatment, the wear resistance, anti-wrinkle property and anti-shrinkage property of machine-washable silk fabric have been greatly enhanced. Even after multiple machine washes, it can still remain smooth and flat, significantly improving the performance of the silk fabric. This helps to extend the service life of the product and reduce resource consumption and waste caused by frequent clothing changes.

One of the major characteristics of silk products is comfort. Huang Qianru said that machine-washable silk fabric retains the good skin-friendliness of mulberry silk. It not only does not damage the unique luster and texture of silk itself, but also improves the softness and fineness of silk to a certain extent. Its "light", "soft" and "smooth" characteristics enhance the comfort of wearing.

"Silk fungus grass has a natural luster. Its fabric is similar to mulberry silk, but the difference lies in that the former has a stronger antibacterial property." " Huang Qianru stated that the cultivation of mycelium is not restricted by geographical location, has low requirements for temperature and soil, and is highly adaptable, which is conducive to large-scale planting. In addition, during the processing of silk fungus grass fabric, no antibacterial chemicals are added. It can be naturally degraded, is environmentally friendly and green, and will not cause secondary pollution to the environment.

Behind the two new products, the company's continuous investment in research and development is outlined. Huang Qianru stated that these technological breakthroughs not only enhanced the quality of the products but also strengthened the company's core competitiveness. In addition, the company is also actively expanding emerging markets, continuously increasing the scale of exports, and its brand influence is growing day by day.

The company's products are mainly exported to markets such as Europe, Japan and South Korea. In recent years, it has also been expanding into the markets of jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Huang Qianru introduced that the company's export volume reached 50 million yuan in the first quarter of this year.

With the expansion of the company's business, we have specially established an export department and an e-commerce department, and conducted sales through multiple channels, achieving good results. Huang Qianru said that at the same time, the company has also strengthened the construction of product design and innovation capabilities, launched customized product services and a series of new products that meet the aesthetic demands of the target market, in order to satisfy the needs of different customer groups.

Innovation closely follows the "carbon trajectory"

In recent years, with the concept of environmental protection deeply rooted in people's hearts, the demand for green and environmentally friendly products in the international consumer market has shown a significant upward trend. Chinese foreign trade textile enterprises are constantly developing environmentally friendly products and actively transforming towards green development, injecting new impetus into their own growth. This year, Zhejiang Textile Import & Export Group Co., Ltd. has developed an environmentally friendly flagship product - viscose dyed yarn.

The entire production process of this product does not add salt for dyeing, does not discharge wastewater, and all water is recycled. During the dyeing process, the amount of water used is significantly reduced compared to the traditional dyeing process. Shi Wenlei, the chairman of Zhejiang Textile Group, told the International Business Daily that this product has gained increasing recognition from customers thanks to the environmental protection concept it embodies.

Shi Wenlei introduced that the viscose dyed yarn has adopted the non-water medium environmentally friendly dyeing technology independently developed by the company. This technology uses silicon-based media instead of water in the dyeing process, eliminating the need to add salt to promote dyeing. The fixation rate of reactive dyes can reach 90%, and the number of subsequent water washes is greatly reduced, effectively solving the problem of wastewater generated during viscose yarn dyeing from the source.

Journalists have learned that for every ton of black viscose yarn dyed, compared with traditional water bath dyeing, the non-water medium dyeing technology reduces the salt consumption from 400 kilograms to 0, the dye consumption from 50 kilograms to 40 kilograms, and the wastewater generation from 50 tons to 30 tons. Meanwhile, through water reuse technology, all the wastewater generated from dyeing with non-aqueous media can be fully recycled, thus achieving zero discharge of wastewater.

Shi Wenlei said that viscose dyed yarn can be made into yarn-dyed fabric or directly into products such as socks and towels. Yarn-dyed fabrics, through the design of waterless printed yarns, have an overall effect that surpasses water-dyed products in terms of both hand feel and appearance.

In recent years, during the process of promoting its products, the company has found that the environmental protection concepts of foreign brand owners have significantly improved, and customers' inquiries about such products have also been increasing. We hope to promote the relevant products to the global market and attract more high-quality brand customers. Shi Wenlei said.

Established in 1979, Zhejiang Textile Group is a professional textile import and export company in China. It mainly engages in the export of textiles, clothing and home textiles, as well as the import of textile raw materials such as cotton, cotton yarn and greige cloth. In addition, the company has established a research and development center to provide customers with design and garment sampling services.

In the first quarter of this year, the company's export volume increased by 12.5% compared with the same period last year. Shi Wenlei stated directly that the company is promoting a diversified market layout, integrating more environmental protection concepts and innovative technologies into product research and development, increasing the added value and competitiveness of products, and continuously enhancing the ability to resist external risks. (Reporter Li Ke

Source: International Business Daily