Since the Political Bureau of the Central Committee first proposed preventing "involution" vicious competition at its meeting in July 2024, this year's government work report has for the first time included the comprehensive rectification of "involution" competition as a key task. On June 27, the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress voted to pass the newly revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, which will come into effect on October 15, 2025.

According to public information, multiple industries including photovoltaic, steel and cement have initiated relevant actions to promote the orderly withdrawal of backward production capacity. On July 1st, the China Cement Association released the "Opinions on Further Promoting the 'Anti-Internal Competition' and 'Stable Growth' High-Quality Development Work in the Cement Industry", clearly stating that it will optimize the industrial structure adjustment. On July 3rd, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized a symposium for manufacturing enterprises in the photovoltaic industry, focusing on promoting the industry to act in accordance with laws and regulations and comprehensively address low-price and disorderly competition, guiding enterprises to enhance product quality, facilitating the orderly exit of backward production capacity, and achieving healthy and sustainable development. It is understood that leading domestic photovoltaic glass enterprises have announced a collective production cut of 30% starting from July to alleviate the "involution" competition in the industry. In addition, some steel mills in the steel industry have also received notices of emission reduction and production cuts one after another recently.

Behind the initiative of multiple industries to cut production and implement "anti-involution" measures lies the increasingly fierce "involution" competition faced by each industry, as well as the determination of industries and enterprises to actively seek solutions. It is also a move to closely follow China's future economic development strategy.

The self-governance and self-discipline of the textile industry optimize the market environment

As a traditional pillar industry, an important livelihood industry and an international advantageous industry in China, the textile industry has always been a significant force driving the economic development of many regions. The industry has been constantly making adjustments and upgrades in its own development to adapt to market demands and maintain industrial vitality.

In July 2024, to strengthen the self-discipline mechanism of the textile industry, standardize industry behavior, create a fair, orderly and healthy market environment, safeguard the overall interests of the industry and the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and practitioners, achieve the development goal of "building a modern textile industrial system that is complete, advanced and safe", and promote the high-quality development of the textile industry The Fifth fifth Standing Council Meeting of the Fifth term of the China National Textile and Apparel Council reviewed and approved and released the "Self-discipline Convention of the China National Textile and Apparel Council". Sun Ruizhe, the president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, clearly put forward that for the high-quality development of the industry, it is necessary to strengthen industry self-discipline. Improve industry regulations and conventions, guide industry self-governance and self-discipline, prevent "involution" vicious competition, and create a fairer and more dynamic market environment.

In the "New Year's Talk" column of Textile & Apparel Weekly in early 2025, Chen Xinwei, the president of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, stated regarding the future development of the chemical fiber industry that the industry should strengthen guidance for enterprises to invest prudently, avoid blind expansion and homogeneous competition, and achieve sustainable development of the industry. He said that it is necessary to strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent "involvement-style" vicious competition. The government should strengthen guidance. Industry associations should play the role of a bridge and link to promote communication and cooperation among enterprises. Enterprises should have a long-term perspective, avoid short-term behaviors, and jointly maintain the market order and healthy development of the industry.

In June this year, the China Cotton Textile Association released the "Initiative for Jointly Promoting High-Quality Development of China's Cotton Textile Industry" at the 2025 China Cotton Textile Conference held in Kashgar, Xinjiang. The initiative letter mentioned that the cotton spinning industry will stabilize the basic position of cotton textile manufacturing, maintain a reasonable and relatively large industrial scale, and optimize the industrial layout and structure. It is particularly mentioned that the industry will be fully integrated into the construction of the national unified market, break through the "involution" competition, allow enterprises of different regions and scales to play to their strengths, develop together, and achieve win-win cooperation. We will adhere to long-termism, stimulate innovation vitality, concentrate more resources on technological innovation, product innovation and management innovation, promote market fairness and improve development efficiency.

Over the years, the Chinese textile machinery industry has also been actively promoting the healthy development of the industry. As early as July 2016, at the 2016 annual meeting of the Weaving Machinery Branch of the China Textile Machinery Association, key enterprises in the weaving machinery industry collectively voted and unanimously passed the enterprise self-discipline convention initiated by the China Textile Machinery Association.

In January 2017, major rapier loom manufacturers in the weaving machinery industry organized a seminar on regulating market behavior in Hangzhou. Companies such as Bijiale (Suzhou Industrial Park), Guangdong Fengkai, Titan Co., LTD., Wanli Textile Machinery, Shanghai Zhongfang Machinery, and Shandong Rifa Textile Machinery reached industry self-discipline agreements and committed to abiding by and implementing them. With this, the textile machinery industry has taken another encouraging step towards standardizing market behavior and resisting vicious competition.

In August 2017, the Circular Weft Knitting Machine Industry Branch of China Textile Machinery Association reached an industry consensus at the second president's meeting of the first term and formed the "Industry Self-discipline Convention", which was then promoted to industry enterprises.

In July 2024, during the second third meeting of the president of the Circular Knitting Machine Industry Branch of China Textile Machinery Association, the circular knitting machine industry promoted self-discipline in the niche field. Three companies, namely Taiyangzhou, Meimingge - Airo (Taicang), and Saimeige, signed the "Self-discipline Convention of the Yarn Feeder Industry" as the first batch of units.

The textile machinery industry refuses to engage in "intra-industry competition" and seeks innovation and change in a diversified manner

In the textile machinery industry, in fact, many enterprises have long suffered from "intra-industry competition", and complaints have never ceased. Of course, apart from the complaints, everyone is also accelerating the promotion of business models to avoid "intra-industry competition".

In recent years, the profit level of the textile machinery industry has declined, and industry competition has become increasingly fierce. Enterprises are facing challenges in terms of price and payment terms. Wang Anjian, the chairman of Qingdao Century Haijia, said that for this reason, Haijia has adjusted its development strategy. On the one hand, it has increased investment in the foreign trade market; on the other hand, it has strengthened product technological innovation around the pain points of customers. Meanwhile, the enterprise actively promotes the intelligent manufacturing process, building an internationally leading information-based intelligent shuttleless loom factory. The order delivery cycle has been significantly shortened, dynamic scheduling has achieved precise production, production efficiency has been significantly improved, product consistency and the response speed of intelligent operation and maintenance have been significantly enhanced, broadening the path for the enterprise's sustainable development.

Huang Lizhen, the chairman of Boshuo Machinery, stated that Boshuo Machinery will never get involved in the irrational internal competition in the market and will screen customers to select high-quality enterprises for cooperation. Internally, enterprises should expand their global sales network layout, deepen their relationships with major clients, and enhance service quality and response efficiency. In addition, carry out product technological innovation in response to market demands and development trends. For instance, the large-sized high-density coral fleece machine launched by the company in 2024 closely aligns with market demands, further solidifying Boshuo Machinery's unique advantage in the field of ultra-large-sized circular machines.

People often hear the word "competitive". Currently, the low-end production capacity in the industry is saturated. Qi Zhiyuan, the general manager of the textile industry at Inovance Technology, said, "The current trend can stimulate the explosion of high-end production capacity. In the future, the textile industry will definitely accelerate its development towards high-end production capacity." Huichuan has been deeply involved in the textile industry for 12 years, understanding a lot of customer language and process language, and is able to combine automation and process very well in the textile industry. Based on this, when the high-end production capacity of the industry is breaking through upward, Huichuan, as a part of it, relies on innovation to constantly seek change and breakthroughs in the textile industry.

Liu Junyi, the general manager of Tianyi Hongqi Textile Machinery, said that currently, the market is highly competitive with homogenization, even spreading from the domestic market to overseas markets. The price war has plunged the entire industry into a vicious circle, restricting the innovation capabilities of enterprises. In the volatile market, Tianyi Hongqi Textile Machinery has chosen to firmly seek continuous evolution in terms of cost, quality, technology and service. To this end, the company, without affecting the performance of the equipment, has reduced manufacturing costs for certain specific fabric categories through technological improvements, meeting customers' demands for high cost-effectiveness of the equipment.

Bi Chenfeng, the chairman of Qingdao Dongjia Textile Machinery, once said that in the past two years, the company has faced a series of challenges, including market decline and severe internal competition. Dongjia Textile Machinery's approach is to accelerate the transformation of its enterprise products and strive to shift from the highly competitive cotton spinning sector to the development of products in areas such as special fibers and high-performance fibers. At present, the company has established a test workshop, which is specifically used for carding tests of fibers such as wool, linen, silk, bamboo and carbon fiber. In Bi Chenfeng's view, although such innovation investment takes a long time to materialize, it is of great significance for the sustainable development of enterprises. In the future, the development of China's textile industry is bound to expand its advantages in terms of diversified raw materials and processes. Dongjia's layout is in line with the trend and also to avoid homogeneous competition.

I think the circular knitting machine industry may face a rather severe development environment in 2025. Based on such development expectations, only by increasing investment in research and development innovation, strictly controlling product quality, and providing differentiated products and services can we reduce the impact of excessive internal competition in the new round of elimination and win more opportunities for survival and development. Lin Qingzhu, the general manager of Fujian Baoxiang, said. It is reported that this year, Baoxiang will further improve the optimization work of its digital and intelligent series of circular weft machines, intensify the joint research and development of new products with downstream users, redouble its efforts to seize the high-end market share, and consolidate the company's industry position.

Dai Xiaohan, the general manager of Guangdong Conters, stated that under the current economic downturn, consumer and investment confidence is insufficient, the textile industry market is rather sluggish, and the industry is highly competitive. In light of such A development environment, Conters has been fully committed to technological breakthroughs and enriching its product line. The company has developed the world's first on-board warp dyeing loom - the BESTMAX PLUS J (A) series. It provides enterprises with equipment that offers greater flexibility, higher efficiency, lower cost and stronger performance of terminal products for sample making.

In response to the current highly competitive market environment, Chaolong Textile Machinery, on the one hand, takes technological innovation as its foundation and, driven by the dual forces of "carbon neutrality" and "digital economy", accelerates its green, intelligent and service-oriented transformation, promoting the optimization of product structure and the upgrading of the value chain. On the other hand, it is necessary to actively expand the countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative and emerging markets, and build a diversified market pattern.

Cixi Taiyangzhou, the world's largest producer of yarn feeders, has driven the technological innovation of one generation of domestic yarn feeders in the belt and Road region. Over the past 40-plus years of development, the company has faced various competitive market environments, including the current internal competition, but has always maintained a good development state. Gao Feng, the general manager of Taiyangzhou, believes that if everyone chooses to compete under the same model, the only thing they can compete for is price. For this reason, Taiyangzhou has been focusing on upgrading its intelligent manufacturing, winning the market with efficiency, quality and cost, and consolidating its competitive edge.

As one of the earliest industries to be marketized, China's textile industry has always had a very strong market adaptability. At present, the industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading around the new positioning of "technology, fashion, green and health". In the face of the current "anti-internal competition" campaign promoted at the national level, backward production capacity will surely be phased out in an orderly manner, and industry self-discipline and market mechanisms will be given more attention. For the textile machinery industry, if it can better meet the industry's goal of eliminating backward production capacity and transforming inefficient production capacity, and achieve high-quality development and orderly market competition, it is bound to embrace new market opportunities.

Source: Textile and Apparel Weekly