Competition in the chemical fiber industry depends on the ability to develop new products
With the substantial increase in the cost of labor in our country, compared with other developing countries, in the field of chemical fiber processing, China has lost its international competitive advantage. The chemical fiber processing industry will inevitably have to shift out of China on a large scale.
The overall performance of listed companies in the chemical fiber industry in China continued to decline. As of the third quarter of 2014, seven of the 15 chemical fiber industry listed companies had losses. Hengtian Hailong and Chunhui shares have already released the 2014 annual report. Due to losses for two consecutive years, the company's shares will be issued with delisting risk warnings.
China's “Twelfth Five-year Development Plan for the textile industry” puts forward: “At the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the ratio of fiber consumption of the three categories of apparel products and industrial end-use products reached 48:27:25.”
"At the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, chemical fibers accounted for 76% of the total fiber processing." China is a big country with a large population, it is also a big consumer of clothing and home textiles, and a big demander of chemical fiber. It can be seen that the market demand is not the cause of the continued decline in the operating performance of listed companies in China's chemical fiber industry.
Jilin Chemical Fiber and Woori Holdings have released the 2014 annual report. We use the two listed companies as samples to analyze the reasons for the continued decline in the operating performance of listed companies in China's chemical fiber industry.
Jilin Chemical Fiber is an earlier state-owned enterprise producing man-made fibers in China. It was listed in 1996 and the actual controller is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the Jilin Municipal Government of Jilin Province. In 2014, Jilin Chemical Fiber achieved operating income of 1.037 billion yuan, operating loss of 67.3 million yuan, and research and development expenditure of 3.36 million yuan, accounting for 0.3% of operating revenue.
The actual controller of Woori Holdings is a natural person. In 2014, Woori Holdings achieved operating revenue of RMB 2.014 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 27.19%; operating profit was RMB 240 million, a year-on-year decrease of 55.71%; its main product was spandex, and its spandex sales revenue was RMB 1.195 billion, accounting for 60% of total operating revenue, gross margin. 16.5%. In 2014, Woori Holdings entered “(No)” in “R&D Expenditure”.
Imported equipment, imported technology, lack of independent intellectual property rights or invention patents are only chemical fiber processing plants. This is the general status of listed companies in China's chemical industry and is also a bottleneck for the development of listed companies in China's chemical fiber industry.
The invention and industrialization of chemical fibers originated in Europe and the United States. According to a report released by the Japan Chemical Fibre Association (JCFA), chemical fiber production in Western Europe accounted for only 4% of global production in 2013, while chemical fiber production in the United States accounted for only 3.5% of the world, while China’s chemical fiber production accounted for global production 68.1. %.
The downstream products of chemical fibers are mainly apparel and home textiles. As the disposable income of residents increases and their living standards increase, people are increasingly pursuing personalization of clothing and home textiles. With the increasing labor costs and the advancement of smart technology, the labor-intensive garment processing industry will inevitably be transformed into an intelligent industry, and this transition will not be delayed for too long.
The popularity and development of 3D printing apparel will subvert the existing chemical fiber processing technology, just as smart phones end digital cameras and digital video cameras.
In the future, China's chemical fiber industry must be technology-intensive and become a supplier of materials for 3D printing apparel and home textiles. R&D expenditures will account for a high percentage of the operating income of the chemical fiber industry.
The market competitiveness of the chemical fiber industry depends on who can continue to introduce more new varieties of products to meet consumer demand for personalized products.
