At present, persistent inflationary pressures and intensified geopolitical conflicts plagued the global economic recovery; the domestic economy continued the momentum of sustained recovery, but the lack of demand constraints are still prominent. 2023 January to October, China’s industrial textiles industry production to maintain a stable operation, the main economic indicators show a weak recovery pattern, the contraction of external demand so that the rate of growth of foreign trade is still hovering at a low level.
Production, according to the National Bureau of Statistics data, January-October non-woven fabrics production of enterprises above designated size fell 3.6% year-on-year, cord fabrics production to maintain the momentum of growth, production increased by 7.1% year-on-year.
Economic efficiency, according to the National Bureau of Statistics data, January-October industrial textiles industry operating income and total profits of enterprises above designated size fell 6.1% and 28.5% year-on-year, respectively, narrowed by 0.5 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points compared with the third quarter, the operating profit margin of 3.5%, 0.1 percentage points higher than the third quarter.
Sub-fields, January-October nonwovens（spunbond, meltblown, etc ) enterprises above designated size of operating income and total profit decreased by 5.3% and 34.2% year-on-year, the operating profit margin of 2.3%, down 1 percentage point year-on-year;
Ropes, cords and cables above the size of the enterprise’s operating income rebounded significantly, an increase of 0.8% year-on-year, total profits fell 46.7% year-on-year, operating profit margin of 2.3%, down 2.1 percentage points year-on-year;
Textile belts, cord fabrics above the size of the enterprise’s operating income and total profits fell 6.2% and 38.7% year-on-year, respectively, the operating profit margin of 3.3%, down 1.7 percentage points year-on-year;
Canopies, canvas enterprises above the size of the operating income and total profits fell 13.3% and 26.7% year-on-year, operating profit margin of 5.2%, down 0.9 percentage points year-on-year;
Filtration, geotextiles where other industrial textiles above-scale enterprises’ operating income and total profits fell 5.2% and 16.1% year-on-year, 5.7% operating margin for the industry’s highest level.
In terms of international trade, according to China Customs data, the export value of China’s industrial textiles industry (customs 8-digit HS code statistics) in January-October 2023 amounted to 32.32 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decline of 12.9%; the industry’s import value (customs 8-digit HS code statistics) in January-October amounted to 4.37 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decline of 15.5%.
In terms of products, industrial coated fabrics and felts/tents are currently the industry’s two major export products, with export value of US$3.77 billion and US$3.27 billion respectively, down 10.2% and 14% year-on-year respectively;
Overseas demand for nonwovens （spunbond, meltblown, etc) continued to pick up, with exports of 1.077 million tons, up 7.1% year-on-year, but affected by the decline in export unit price, the export value was US$3.16 billion, down 4.5% year-on-year;
Overseas markets for disposable sanitary products (diapers, sanitary napkins, etc.) remained active, with the export value reaching US$2.74 billion, up 13.2% year-on-year;
Among the traditional products, the leather-based fabrics, industrial glass fiber products, the decline in export value has narrowed, cord (cable) with textiles, canvas, packaging textiles, the decline in export value has deepened to varying degrees; wipes (excluding wet wipes) exports amounted to 1.16 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decline of 0.9%.
Nonwoven can be widely used for the medical industry protection, air and liquid filtration and purification, household bedding, agricultural construction, oil-absorbing as well as systematic application solutions for specific market demands.