China's textile industry strives to shake off cheap image

By Till Faehnders Mar 22, 2007, 6:06 GMT

Nantong, China - China's textile manufacturers want to rid themselves of their image of churning out cheap goods as they aim to maintain their dominant position in the world market by embarking on a modernization offensive.

Textile factories are increasingly starting to import modern machinery and high-tech know-how while the government supports local development initiatives and promotes domestic brands.

The goal is to make the trademark 'Made in China' become synonymous with 'quality.'

Beijing started a Textile Industry Technical Advancement and Development Programme as a part of its current five-year-plan and established a fund of 180 million dollars that is not only aimed at driving technological development but also innovation.

'Innovation is the key,' said Du Yuzhou,  chairman of the National Textile Industry Association.

The initiative is already beginning to bear fruit in the eastern city of Nantong.

About 1,000 mechanical looms rattle in Nantong's Lianfa Textile Factory in the noisy rhythm of industrial manufacturing as workers wear ear protectors. The hot air is thick with machine fumes as fabrics slide through laundering and ironing machines several metres high.

The shirt factory produces its own raw materials, more than 5 million metres of fabric each month, sales manager Lu Aijun said. Modern factories like Lianfa are able to deliver different quality products depending on individual orders.

'Our customers include well-known brands such as Polo or DKNY,' Lu said.

Each run of fabric is quality-checked three times. An in-house laboratory tests colour fastness and durability using brand-new testing devices.

'Many of our machines were imported from Germany,' Lu said.

According to the German Engineering Federation, China is today the most important buyer of German textile machines as the German Office for Foreign Trade confirmed the high-tech trend in China.

'The Chinese government is increasingly driving for faster modernization and higher value,' the agency wrote in a recent report.

Cheap, handmade mass products once helped China to become the 'global tailor shop' as the country swamped the world market with textiles at low prices.

No other country produced more T-shirts, jeans or shoes than China. In fact, a full quarter of all textile imports worldwide hailed from China in 2005.

In 2006, the gross output value of textiles accounted for a staggering 323 billion dollars, China's textile ministry of commerce said. Exports jumped up 25 per cent from 2005, according to the China Internet Information Centre.

But the textile giant, nevertheless, stands on shaky ground. Rising wages, high costs for raw materials as well as trade restrictions and import quotas in the United States and Europe caused a tumble in net profits, and countries like Cambodia and India are increasingly developing into serious competitors.

But China's advantage has always been the availability of an almost inexhaustible workforce. Even in Nantong, many textiles are still assembled by hand.

Two storeys at the Lianfa Textile Factory accommodate countless whirring sewing machines. Several hundred young women sew together blue shirt sleeves for an order placed by a US client.

Loudspeakers blare sentimental songs. Mountains of fabric bales are piled up on tables and on the floor.

The seamstresses' salaries are significantly above the minimum wage, a female supervisor declared.

A 17-year-old girl spoke highly of her workplace. 'I am working eight hours a day, and there is no overtime,' she said, perhaps only to please her supervisor standing nearby.

But under the circumstances, Lianfa is a model factory, asserted the visiting executive of a German textile firm.

There are many other factories in China where a sweatshop work environment would prevail, she said.