Fabric has always played avital part of our everyday life as it serves various purposes. Being a flexiblemedium, it can be wrapped tightly, or draped around, cut and stitched to oneshape, woven or knitted to stretch to make many shapes, and can also beeffectively combined with other materials to produce different final products creatively. Global fabrics industry is now experiencing drastic technological changesduring the past decades resulting in an increase in yield and quality offabrics, and a decrease in overhead and labor costs. New innovations in fabricmanufacturing came and changed the industry forever.
During the earlier ages, fabricswere made from materials like cotton, wool, and flax. Materials depended on thearea of manufacture and also the time it was being made. Cloth making was thena domestic activity. Later during Industrial Revolution, new machineries cameinto the scenario which made fabric making an organized industry. Today, latesttechnological advancements, and innovations in machineries have led to acompetitive industry environment offering any variety of fabric, a person would prefer.
Textile manufacturing consists ofa wide variety of skills and sectors starting from basic textile manufacturersto business distributors. Rapid advancements have taken place in the pastdecades. Globalization and liberalization has brought one countrys product for sale to another country. Fabric makers in one country face competition not only fromdomestic; but also from international manufacturers. China has come to dominatethe global textile scenario, followed by Turkey, India, US, and other countries.
China:
China's textile fabricsindustry is currently seeing a robust growth. Their cultural growth, salestechniques, and improved technology, supplemented by low prices attribute totheir success in this segment. Vast majority of textiles sold in big countrieslike US, and UK, is mainly manufactured in China. With the boom in contractmanufacturing and outsourcing, textile trade continues to have a heated marketin China. Followed by China's entry into the WTO (World Trade Organization),Chinese textile manufacturers are building up muscles to face the cut-throatcompetition both in the domestic and international markets. Manufacturers are puttingtheir hard efforts to reach up to international standards in terms of capitalpersonnel, information and management.
Co-coordinating with the foreignmanufacturers to increase their export volume, and keeping abreast of thelatest developments in the world market on the other hand will enhance thedevelopment opportunities of the Chinese manufacturers. Influx of foreigncompanies in China also facilitates them to learn advance designing andmarketing management strategies. Their entry into WTO will increase the textileexports by a big margin.
Domestic demand is the mainreason for the growth of textile industry in China rather than the countrysexports. With a population of 1.3 billion people in China, domestic demand hasa steady and gradual growth. Sales volume of China shows an average increase of26.78% during the past years, which is comparatively higher than the exportvolume. This data implies that domestic demand is more in China. Booming domestic consumption has boosted up the demand of textile fabrics, not onlyin the domestic market but also in the global market. The competition amongdomestic textile brands has simultaneously triggered the growth of household textile products as well.
China's knitted fabric industryhas registered a growth percentage of 17% during the last year exporting around$3 billion USD worth of knitted fabrics. China's knitted fabric market ismainly dependent on the orders placed by big garment exporting countries in Asia. Any changes in the orders of these manufacturers influence the Chinese fabricindustry. Many types of knitted fabric like single jersey, raschel, doubleinterlock, tricot, rib, and purl are available in the Chinese fabric market. 80%of the suppliers specialize in knitted fabrics. Two thirds of the suppliersdeal with weft knits for exports.
Trends observed in the Chinese knitting industry:
- Chinese manufacturers are now upgrading their machineries to improve their production capability and quantity. Many new types of machinery with technological advancements are being purchased by the fabric makers in China either to manufacture more varieties of cloth, or to increase the quantity of fabric manufactured.
- China will be the largest exporter of single knit jersey fabrics. Manufacturing process is very simple; not requiring any complex machinery and this fabric can be used in variety of apparels. Hence, more focus is given towards manufacturing this type of knitted fabrics.
- Rise in the material costs will have an impact on the prices of finished garments.
China has also been one among the top ten countries exporting denim fabrics during 2005. Chinese denim fabric exporters are successful in penetrating the global markets and have thus acquired enormous profits. During 2000-2005, their overseas trade rose by an average of 18% which is four times more than the growth rate of denim fabric; worldwide. Good quality fabrics, comfortable and healthy can resurrect the fabric industry while meeting the consumers demand at the same time.
References:
2) http://www.economywatch.com
3) http://www.chinasourcingreports.com
4) http://english.people.com.cn
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