New Analysis On The Development Of Anti Epidemic Textile Industry Such As Masks And Protective Clothing

Anti epidemic textiles are important products in the field of industrial textiles for medical and health use, including masks, protective clothing and disinfection wipes. In just one year, great changes have taken place in China's epidemic prevention textile industry. China took the lead in returning to work and production, playing the role of the largest supplier of anti epidemic materials. The production capacity and output of related products have been enlarged by dozens or even hundreds of times in a year, which has greatly promoted the export of textile and garment products. According to public data, from March 2020 to the end of last year, 224.2 billion masks worth 340 billion yuan were exported, including 65 billion medical masks and 2.31 billion pieces of protective clothing, including 773 million pieces of medical protective clothing.

    Under the new situation of drastic fluctuation of epidemic prevention textile industry, in order to further grasp the development status of epidemic prevention textiles and form industry suggestions for optimizing industrial development, China Industrial Textiles Industry Association conducted a questionnaire on "suggestions on optimal development of epidemic prevention textile industry" for enterprises related to key epidemic prevention materials such as masks, protective clothing, raw and auxiliary materials from January 6 to 11, 2021 investigation and research. As of January 11, 2021, 176 valid questionnaires have been received.

Basic information and analysis of the questionnaire

（1） Basic information of the enterprise

Basic information of enterprises: the survey enterprises come from 22 provinces, autonomous regions and cities. As shown in Figure 1, the top five enterprises are distributed in Jiangsu Province (24%), Guangdong Province (26 cases), Zhejiang Province (9%), Shandong Province (9%), and Fujian Province (5%). To some extent, the distribution is basically consistent with the domestic distribution of national epidemic prevention textile enterprises, and the sample data are representative.

Figure 1 Distribution of sample enterprises in China.

The survey sample enterprises cover 8 types of enterprises, including comprehensive anti epidemic textiles, mask products, protective clothing products, spunbonded spunlaced nonwovens, melt blown nonwovens, other raw and auxiliary materials, and scientific research institutions. The cumulative proportion of manufacturers of masks and protective clothing products accounted for 47%, of which 41% were related to the normal operation of masks and protective clothing before the epidemic. According to statistics, 79% of the enterprises were established in 2016 or before.

(1) Enterprise type

Figure 2 enterprise type.

In terms of enterprise type, the sample enterprises involve the whole industrial chain of epidemic prevention textiles. As shown in Figure 2, 30% of the enterprises are comprehensive enterprises, which usually produce products such as masks / protective clothing and nonwovens at the same time, 11% of the enterprises produce masks alone, and 5% of the enterprises produce protective clothing alone. There are 83 (47%) of the three enterprises in total. Spunbonded, Spunlaced and other nonwovens enterprises account for 15%, melt blown nonwovens enterprises account for 11%, raw and auxiliary materials and equipment enterprises such as breathable film, nonwoven equipment and parts, mask machine and adhesive machine, mask belt, nose clip and other raw and auxiliary materials and equipment enterprises account for 20%, scientific research institutions of colleges and universities account for 3%, and trade and circulation enterprises account for 2%. Among the enterprises related to masks and protective clothing, 42% of them were in normal operation before the epidemic, and the rest (52% in total) were enterprises related to epidemic prevention textiles such as raw materials, clothing, home textiles, sanitary products and food after the epidemic.

(2) Time of establishment

In terms of the time of establishment, 14 (8%) enterprises in the questionnaire were newly established in 2020, 19 were established in 2017-2019, and most of them were existing enterprises established in 2016 and before, as shown in Figure 3. From the data point of view, the number of newly established enterprises participating in the questionnaire survey in 2020 is relatively small.

Figure 3 the establishment time of the enterprise.

（2） Production and operation status and expectation

Among the sample enterprises, the production and operation situation in 2020 is generally good, and there are optimistic expectations for 2021. Most enterprises will maintain stable production capacity in the next three years. As shown in Figure 4, 64% of the enterprises in 2020 are in good (37%) or very good (27%) in the production and operation of masks and protective clothing, and 53% of the enterprises are expected to have good (39%) or very good (14%) production and operation in 2021, as shown in Figure 5. The production and operation in 2021 is expected to decline compared with that in 2020. In terms of investment plan, 53% of enterprises choose to maintain stable production capacity from 2021 to 2023, 20% of enterprises plan to increase investment in the field of epidemic prevention textiles, and only 9% of enterprises will gradually withdraw.

Figure 4 production and operation of enterprises in 2020.

Figure 5 forecasts the production and operation in 2021.

（3） Capacity and layout

In terms of production capacity and layout, more than half of the enterprises think that there is overcapacity related to epidemic prevention textiles, and some enterprises think that the production capacity of high-end products is insufficient, and few think that the industrial chain layout is reasonable or very reasonable. On the whole, it is considered that there is excess capacity of epidemic prevention textiles, and the excess capacity of spunbonded nonwovens and meltblown nonwovens is higher than that of masks and protective clothing products.

60% of the enterprises think that the production capacity of masks and protective clothing products is excessive; 29% of the enterprises think that although the production capacity is excessive, the capacity of high-end products is insufficient, and only 1% of the enterprises think that the production capacity is insufficient. 64% of enterprises think that the production capacity of meltblown nonwovens and spunbonded nonwovens is over capacity, and 28% of enterprises think that the production capacity of high-grade meltblown nonwovens is insufficient. For the industrial chain layout of masks and protective clothing, only 18% of enterprises think that the industrial chain layout of masks and protective clothing is reasonable (13%) or very reasonable (5%).

（4） Development demands

In the short term, the demands of enterprises mainly focus on market supervision, emergency reserve and technology upgrading. In the long run, in addition to market supervision and technology upgrading, enterprises have a strong demand for the cultivation of incremental markets, while the demand for emergency reserves is relatively weak, which is obviously different from the short-term demands.

As shown in Figure 6, the top three problems in the six issues of improving market supervision and supervision, establishing and perfecting the emergency reserve of epidemic prevention textiles, improving the technical competitiveness of the industry, increasing the technical breakthrough of the industry, cultivating local brands, cultivating the market and digesting the excess capacity, and improving the regional layout of the industrial chain, the top three problems are: 55% of the enterprises suggest to improve the city Field supervision and supervision, 53% of enterprises proposed to establish and improve the emergency reserve of epidemic prevention textiles, 51% of enterprises proposed to improve the competitiveness of science and technology of the industry, and increase the technical research of the industry.

In terms of the most effective measures for the long-term and healthy development of the industry, as shown in Figure 7, among the five measures, namely, policy guidance and cultivation of incremental market, guidance and encouragement of industrial technology upgrading, establishment of emergency reserve of epidemic prevention textiles, optimization of production layout of epidemic prevention textiles, strengthening supervision of epidemic prevention textile market, and regulating stock market, the top three measures are: 60% of enterprises suggest cultivating incremental market, 4 4% of the enterprises suggested to regulate the stock market, and 44% suggested to encourage the industry technology upgrading.

Figure 6 the most urgent problems in the healthy development of mask and protective clothing industry in recent years.

Figure 7 the most effective measures for the healthy development of mask and protective clothing industry in the long term.

In terms of other suggestions, the questionnaire enterprises put forward some opinions and suggestions on guiding the green development of the industry, increasing the cultivation of talents, strengthening the price guidance, and strengthening the construction of public service platform.

conclusion

After the great changes in the industry, most of the enterprises in the anti epidemic textile industry, such as the clothing industry, have a good production and operation situation in 2020, and are not pessimistic about the expectation of 2021. However, the situation of overcapacity and unreasonable industrial chain layout is realistic, and various enterprises have different demands for the future development of the industrial chain. This survey has the following preliminary conclusions:

1. In terms of production capacity and layout, there is excess capacity related to epidemic prevention textiles, and there is room for further optimization of domestic epidemic prevention textiles layout. The industrial chain is mainly concentrated in economically developed regions such as South China, East China, Beijing and Tianjin, while less developed provinces are found. In terms of product types, the production capacity and layout of comprehensive enterprises and product production enterprises in South China and East China are relatively concentrated, and raw and auxiliary materials in North and central China are relatively concentrated. Due to the small number of related enterprises in Northeast, northwest and southwest provinces, unreasonable distribution may be more obvious.

2. In terms of production and operation, in 2020, the general production and operation situation of comprehensive enterprises is better, and most of these enterprises were established in 2016 or before; the newly established meltblown nonwovens production and operation situation is not ideal, and the proportion is relatively large. Compared with other enterprises, the general production and operation situation of non manufacturing enterprises such as non-woven fabric, auxiliary materials, equipment and other anti epidemic textile related enterprises and non manufacturing enterprises are generally not ideal. The production and operation situation of various enterprises in 2020 will affect their production and operation expectation in 2021.

3. In terms of investment willingness, the enterprises with better production and operation in 2020 tend to increase the proportion of investment, while most of the enterprises with poor production and operation choose to reduce production, storage capacity or even gradually withdraw.

4. In terms of enterprise demands, enterprise appeals mainly focus on market supervision, incremental market cultivation, emergency reserve, and technology upgrading. In the related demands, enterprises in the short-term industrial chain generally agree that it is necessary to strengthen market supervision and supervision, establish emergency reserves and improve the competitiveness of the industry. Enterprises in the long-term industrial chain generally believe that it is necessary to strengthen market supervision, guide technology upgrading and cultivate incremental markets. Enterprises of masks and protective clothing products are more concerned than other enterprises in establishing emergency reserves of epidemic prevention textiles and optimizing the layout of epidemic prevention textile industry.

To sum up, the current epidemic prevention textiles such as masks, protective clothing and other epidemic prevention textiles after rapid development need to pay attention to the problems such as overcapacity and unreasonable layout. In the future, we need to take a variety of measures to optimize the industrial layout of epidemic prevention textiles, reasonably adjust the production capacity structure, appropriately open and cultivate incremental markets, and improve the overall technical competitiveness of the industry. This is of great significance to enhance the ability of emergency rescue of public health emergencies, enhance the level of risk resistance of the whole society, protect the safety of people's lives and property, and maintain the national public health safety.