Drive Industry Development with Innovation: Blanket Industry

At present, the market demand is low, and blankets, as consumer goods for daily use, show strong rigid demand. According to customs statistics, from January to October, China exported 382 million blankets, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%, and a foreign exchange of US$2.05 billion, an increase of 11.3% year-on-year. It is the only product among the 11 categories of wool textile exports that can maintain the same volume and price. In the predicament, we can maintain a better development trend, and at the same time reflect that China's blanket industry has certain advantages in raw materials, equipment and technology.

Although the days are relatively good, the current development of the blanket industry is still facing challenges and there is also much room for improvement. From December 14th to 15th, the 4th National Carpet Industry Development Exchange Conference hosted by Linyi Lumin Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. and the second session of the blanket professional committee were held in Linyi, Shandong Province. How to use innovation to drive the development of the industry, increase the added value of blanket products, expand the field of product application, and implement a brand strategy has become a central topic discussed by industry leaders, experts and entrepreneurs.

Exports keep growing

Domestic market needs to be expanded

Since the second half of last year, the international economic situation has continued to slump, market demand has been insufficient, and the export growth of wool textile products has gradually slowed down. In the second half of this year, cumulative exports have experienced negative growth. According to customs statistics, from January to October, the cumulative export of wool textile products was 10.3 billion U.S. dollars, which was a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%, and the export volume fell more than the same period of last year. In this situation, the export of blankets increased by 2.6% year-on-year, and the foreign exchange earned through exports increased by 11.3% year-on-year. From the perspective of major exporting countries and regions, the United States’ export market share was 30%, an increase of 3.13% year-on-year; the EU-27’s market share was 23%, down 9% year-on-year; the Japanese market was 7%, an increase of 9% year-on-year; UAE The market share was 4%, a year-on-year decrease of 15%. In general, there are rises and falls, there are joys and worries. Peng Yanli, chairman of the China Wool Textile Industry Association, said that it is not easy for blanket products to keep their volume and price increases when market demand is low.

Professor Zhang Jinwu, deputy director of Textiles Department of Nantong Textile Vocational Technical College, stated that China's blanket production and export volume rank first in the world and it has become the world's blanket production base. With the continuous improvement of the quality of blankets, the continuous improvement of the production process, the continuous improvement of the industrial chain, and the continuous launch of the brand, China's blanket industry has formed a certain competitive advantage. However, there are also problems such as low industrial level, strong dependence on exports, and weak independent innovation capabilities. With the rise in domestic production costs, profit margins have declined.

Peng Yanli also said that the blanket industry is currently an export-oriented industry. According to estimates, the proportion of domestic and foreign sales is 30% and 70% respectively. From the 17 companies that participated in this year's association's famous and high-quality products recommendation activity, they reported that 57% of the export sales took up in 2011 (62% of exports in 2010). In the face of sluggish international markets, rising apprecia- tions, labor costs and rising costs of various factors, it is necessary for blanket companies to open up the domestic market. By guiding lifestyles, the market share of domestic blankets will be expanded.

Product more diversified

New materials and new technologies help boost value chain development

In order to review the achievements made by blanket companies in technological innovation, expanding the use of raw materials, product research and development, improving product quality, and expanding marketing, this year the China Wool Textile Industry Association has for the first time organized a nationwide recommendation campaign for famous luxury blankets. The event attracted the nation's key carpet companies to actively participate in the event, and received a total of 60 products declared by 25 companies. The China Maojian Association Secretariat organized an expert group to assess the qualifications of the participating companies, the intrinsic quality and technical evaluation of the products, and the overall evaluation of the appearance quality. A total of 16 "boutique awards" for blanket products and 23 "quality product awards" were evaluated.

At this national blanket development exchange conference, medals and certificates were awarded to award-winning products, and participants were organized to observe the award-winning products. From the award-winning products, we can see that the development of blankets is characterized by diversification. The raw materials used are not only traditional wool, acrylic, polyester, but also cotton, hollow fibers, etc.; both heavy Raschel double-layer blankets and light-weight cotton blankets. . Patterns and patterns also have different styles. But overall, there is no big breakthrough in the application field.

Peng Yanli proposed that blanket manufacturers should increase investment in R&D and improve product development capabilities to further increase the added value of their products. Most of the blanket companies are outward-looking, and their R&D investment and new product development capabilities are relatively weak, and their added value is low. During the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, a total of 50 scientific and technological achievements in the wool textile industry won the China Science and Technology Progress Award for the Textile Industry Association, among which the blanket projects were very few. The average unit price of export blankets in China is only US$5.36 per article, which shows this point.

How can we achieve blanket product innovation and increase product added value? According to Shi Hao, a professor and senior engineer at the Institute of Military Equipment Research, the brand and high added value are the products of a combination of technology and art. In the development of new blanket products, it is necessary to reduce costs, increase profits, improve quality, create differentiation, and cater to market segments through technological innovation—improving the value of existing value chains, and applying new concepts and combining existing resources. Create people's desire to buy, open up markets, establish new value chains, and create new values. Modern products give people two kinds of information: rational information includes the product's functions, materials, and crafts. Perceptual information includes the product's shape, color, beauty, and usage. In the development of new blanket products, sensible engineering knowledge should also be used to reflect the psychological needs of consumers and transform the feelings or images produced by consumers into the design elements.

He suggested that, in use, blanket products can be more abundant, can be used as a cold bed, can also be used as a summer thin, can also be used for interior decoration, background lighting, equipment, sports outdoor, pet supplies, car blankets Wait. The appearance of the touch, you can have a flexible or precious animal hair style, but also have special features, such as: flame retardant, antibacterial, release negative ions. These can be achieved through the use of new materials and new technologies. If different materials are selected, different fineness and cross section are designed to simulate the fluff and bristles of the rare wild Animal Fur, the appropriate mixing method is adopted to make the hairs and bristles match reasonably, and the surface of the animal hair is modeled on the overall structure of the animal hair. Similar to the feeling of precious Fur, imitation animal fur blankets can be developed. In addition, the house decoration and furniture decoration blankets can achieve rapid decoration, plush surface gives a warm feeling, while the plush surface has a good sound absorption and noise reduction, suitable for noise reduction requirements of street residents, but also combined with negative ion processing Forest-like patterns give the feeling of a forest oxygen bar, and built-in LEDs can be used for soft lighting.

Professor Zhang Peihua, director of the Department of Knitting and Garment Engineering at the School of Textiles, Donghua University, also put forward specific suggestions for the development of comfortable functional carpet products based on the analysis of the characteristics of domestic blankets. Shanghai Hengyuanxiang Home Textiles Co., Ltd. General Manager Qian Jianchun introduced Hengyuanxiang's successful practice of highlighting wool culture in product marketing and provided references for blanket product marketing.

Energy-saving and emission reduction cleaner production

Industrial chain cooperation for sustainable development

The finishing process after printing and dyeing in blanket production consumes a lot of energy, water, and waste water. Therefore, for the blanket industry, to achieve sustainable development, energy-saving, emission reduction and cleaner production are not to be overlooked.

In recent years, blanket companies have made unremitting efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction, and have also achieved significant results. The survey shows that the total industrial water consumption of 18 blanket companies in 2011 was 220,000 tons per household, which was a year-on-year drop of 25%; the total amount of wastewater discharged by the 12 enterprises was 150,000 tons per household, a year-on-year decrease of 41%. Peng Yanli said that the party’s *** proposed that we must vigorously promote the construction of ecological civilization, adhere to the basic national policy of saving resources and protecting the environment, and strengthen the construction of an ecological civilization system. It is necessary to incorporate resource consumption, environmental damage, and ecological benefits into the economic and social development evaluation system, and establish a target system, assessment methods, and reward and punishment mechanisms that reflect the requirements of ecological civilization. In accordance with this requirement, the blanket industry should sum up the promotion of energy-saving and emission-reducing good experience, process equipment, and strive for policy support and rewards. In this regard, the Professional Committee on Blankets will carry out some basic work and provide guidance, indicators, and basic data. The China Wool Textile Industry Association strives to establish contacts with government agencies and help companies do energy-saving and emission reduction work.

In addition, win-win cooperation in the industrial chain is also an inevitable direction for the blanket industry to become bigger and stronger. Peng Yanli believes that the advantage of the blanket industry is that the localization of raw materials and equipment is very high, and to take full advantage of this advantage, related industries cooperate and improve the level of equipment, develop suitable dyeing agent additives, combine production, study and research, and promote The speed of industrialization of scientific and technological achievements will provide powerful technical support for improving product variety and quality, saving energy and reducing consumption, and increasing production efficiency. Zhang Jinwu also proposed that in the existing blanket industry chain, it is necessary to actively build a technology innovation alliance for blanket enterprises. All parties in the alliance have adopted various long-term contractual arrangements and equity arrangements to form a loose network organization with shared benefits and shared risks. This is an important way for the improvement of the blanket industry.

The meeting also elected members of the second committee of the blanket professional committee. Lin Chunsheng, chairman of Linyi Xinguang Blanket Co., Ltd. and director of the blanket professional committee, introduced the work plan for the blanket professional committee in 2013. Next year, the Blanket Professional Committee will organize and conduct research on the blanket market, regularly invite experts to conduct market analysis, and conduct basic statistics on the raw material consumption, equipment scale, output, and quality of the national blanket enterprises; promote civilized production, civilized business, and high-quality services. Blanket industry self-discipline; organization of blanket enterprises and dyeing and auxiliaries plant counterparts, timely adoption of new dyeing auxiliaries, and promote sustainable development of the industry.