The new crown epidemic will give birth to China’s global health textile industry chain and supply chain

Our country is a major textile and clothing manufacturing country and a major chemical fiber manufacturing country. It has the world’s largest complete industrial chain and supply chain. As a major producer of masks, China has Mask production capacity accounts for half of the world. China’s textile industry chain and supply chain have not only played an extremely important role in the domestic “fight against the epidemic”, but will also reflect the power of China’s textile manufacturing in the global “fight against the epidemic”. Currently, with the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in the world, the price of masks in Italy, Germany, South Korea, Australia and other countries has skyrocketed, and there has been a “mask shortage” due to shortages in market supply, and they have restricted exports. On March 5, 2020, the Trump administration also exempted dozens of medical products exported from China from tariffs, including masks, disinfectant wipes, and medical gloves, for a total of For more than 100 items, the tariffs will be directly reduced to zero. In this fight against the epidemic, it only took one month for China’s mask manufacturing to go from “one mask is hard to find” to a daily production capacity of 116 million masks. Sinopec and Sinomach Hengtian Group jointly built 10,000 masks in 12 days The ton-level meltblown cloth production plant fully reflects the speed of China’s textile manufacturing. At the same time, we must also be clearly aware of the existing problems and grasp the historical opportunities for development.

The sudden epidemic questions the strength of the textile industry chain

The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered a huge demand for protective equipment, which is undoubtedly a test for my country’s textile industry chain and supply chain. This “strong pulse” instantaneous demand has exposed our problems in the storage and production of protective equipment.

First of all, there is insufficient reserve of textiles for emergency disaster relief and protection. Take protective clothing as an example. In the early days of the epidemic, protective clothing, which served as the life protection line for front-line medical staff, was also in serious short supply. Qualified domestic production companies could only produce 30,000 sets per day. Wuhan alone needs 100,000 sets of medical protective clothing every day and 3 million sets of masks a month. The supply and demand of raw materials are imbalanced.

Secondly, it is necessary to pay attention to the emergency supply capacity of the main raw materials for protective equipment. From Sinopec’s hero post “I have meltblown cloth, who has a mask machine?” to the demand slogan “I have a mask machine, who has a meltblown cloth?” appeared on the market, the market price of PP meltblown cloth has increased more than ten times. This fully reflects the production capacity allocation problems in various links of the industrial chain under extreme circumstances.

Third, further strengthen the research and development of antibacterial filtration textile core technology and original fiber technology. PP melt-blown nonwoven technology is an original military-to-civilian technology in the United States. In the early 1950s, the U.S. Naval Laboratory developed a filter material technology with ultra-fine filtration effects to collect radioactive particles produced by nuclear tests. In the mid-1960s, the American Exxon Company further researched this process, cooperated with Accurate Company to create the first prototype of melt-blown equipment, and applied for a patent. Polypropylene was invented by Professors Ziegler and Natta in 1954 and produced crystalline isotactic polypropylene using the Zieglei-Natta catalyst. In 1963, they won the Nobel Prize.

Intrinsic drivers of global demand for healthy textile products

The history of human civilization and progress is actually a history of the struggle against epidemic viruses. As the COVID-19 epidemic spreads around the world, people from all over the world have gradually realized that viruses have been coexisting with humans for a long time and may attack humans at any time. Therefore, fighting against epidemic viruses will be a long-term epidemic prevention activity for mankind. This epidemic has undoubtedly deepened people’s understanding of the meaning of life and changed our attitude towards life. In front of life, no matter rich or poor, noble or humble, all have the same value. After the outbreak of the new coronavirus, people have a new understanding of the meaning of life, are more awe-inspiring for nature, full of reverence for life, and are more concerned about health and environmental protectionMore and more attention will be paid to it, and the concepts of green and health will be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Social awareness of environmental protection and healthy consumption are becoming a trend. The epidemic has also invisibly changed social concepts and people’s living rules, changed social lifestyles and consumption patterns, and subsequently changed the industrial ecology and industry structure. Clothing fashion is cyclical, luxury is temporary, only health and comfort are eternal, and nature and green are what we should pursue. “Green, environmentally friendly, healthy and comfortable” will run through the history of human textiles and even the history of human development. In the post-epidemic era, each of us and every life will be redefined and repositioned. We must rewrite the song of life and demonstrate our own value. As consumers’ awareness of life and health improves, the habit of sanitary protection consumption will become a new fashion, and various protective, disinfection and hygiene textiles will emerge in endlessly to meet consumers’ new physiological and psychological needs

　What are the great health textile products in the context of intelligent manufacturing?

If divided according to application, health textiles can usually be divided into the following categories:

1. Medical and sanitary textiles. For example, general hospital work clothes, hospital gowns, sheets, covers, mattresses, bedding, blankets, pillowcases, towels and masks, etc. External medical tape and cotton swabs, cotton balls, gauze, bandages, band-aids, absorbent cotton, dressing cloth, tape base cloth, wound dressing, plaster cloth, hemostatic fiber, etc. Surgical gowns, surgical caps, masks, surgical coverings and X-ray operating gowns and gloves for medical protection. Medical functional surgical sutures, hemostatic fibers, artificial blood vessels, artificial skin, artificial hair, artificial respirators, artificial kidneys, artificial lungs, artificial livers, artificial bones and artificial joints, artificial tendons, artificial heart valves and repair fabrics, Hernia repair fabrics, plasma separators, fiber-reinforced artificial bone plates, etc.

2. Daily hygiene products. For example, sanitary napkins, sanitary napkins, tampons, children’s diapers, elderly incontinence pads, antibacterial socks, etc.

3. Textiles for sports and health care. For example, the global market for compression stockings to prevent and treat varicose veins in the lower limbs is estimated to exceed US$100 billion. Others include correction belts, restraint belts, corsets, corrective clothing, elastic shoulder pads, wrist pads, knee pads, waist pads, etc.

　4. Textile composite materials for medical devices and instruments. For example, wheelchairs, crutches, stretchers, transport vehicles and other medical equipment are manufactured and processed from reinforced composite materials such as glass fiber, metal fiber, ceramic fiber, carbon fiber and elastic fiber.

With the arrival of China’s aging society and the adjustment of population policies, as well as the iteration of global textile consumption for protective, medical, sanitary disinfection and personal care, there is no doubt that functional textiles for health are the next step in upgrading textile consumption in the future. The development trend of the big health textile industry chain and supply chain will usher in further optimization and development driven by new consumption under the background of artificial intelligence technology.

How to improve the industrial chain and supply chain of China’s big health textiles?

This is actually one of the propositions that China, a major textile manufacturing country, will become a powerful textile manufacturing country. The major test of the global epidemic will inevitably require China’s textile industry chain and supply chain to have the ability to respond quickly and adapt to the global situation. Under the combined impact of emergencies, disaster relief and protection, and green and healthy daily consumption, countries around the world are actively developing and producing green products that are beneficial to disaster prevention and relief, protect human health, and have antibacterial, disinfection, and daily personal hygiene care functions. Consumer textiles. In the face of global protection emergency disaster relief reserves and the growth of new demands for health textiles, how to enhance the global competitiveness of China’s textile manufacturing and optimize the industrial chain and supply chain of China’s textile manufacturing are practical questions that we textile people must answer.

First of all, central enterprises such as Sinopec should take the lead in increasing investment in scientific research, further cooperate with universities to carry out industry-university-research cooperation, and carry out research on original and hard-core technologies for industrialization. Universities should weaken the assessment mechanism for publishing SCI papers. , adjust the scientific research funding allocation mechanism, overcome academic formalism, allow scientific researchers to calm down and engage in scientific research, encourage scientific researchers to write papers in the practice of original technology research and development and industrialization, and truly improve the ability of technological innovation.

Secondly, under the conditions of artificial intelligence, it is necessary to fully develop the global demand and consumption big data technology and the industrial Internet of Things technology under Beidou satellite navigation technology. In the “One Belt and One Road” Countries along the route plan to establish material reserves and production bases. Especially this year, we must seize the opportunity of 5G application to further optimize the digital transformation and supply chain process of China’s textile manufacturing global industrial chain. Today’s competition between global enterprises is essentially a competition between the supply chains of enterprises. To build an efficient supply chain and improve the competitiveness of the supply chain, we not only need to rely on innovative technologies, but also need to build a full ecosystem. , a full-chain collaborative industrial IoT platform and supply chain service system.

Third, adjust the construction of relevant disciplines and cultivate various types of talents at multiple levels. Combine the construction of first-class disciplines with China’s textile technology innovation to provide talent support for China’s textile manufacturing power. While showing China’s emergency epidemic prevention plan to the world and supplying China’s great health textile products, we must also study these textile waste recycling and processing technologies to provide the world with China’s environmental protection plan.

Finally, use brand building to lead the globalization of China’s big health textile industry chain and supply chain, and support textile companies to move towards international high-end brands. Mask industry is a The most classic case: China’s mask manufacturing advantages lie in low cost and production capacity, but the top of the pyramid of the mask industry is still occupied by companies such as 3M, Honeywell, and Unicharm. Behind this is a set of industrial logic of a manufacturing powerhouse. Although masks are ultra-large-scale, cheaply manufactured, and modular assembly products, the world’s top brands of masks, 3M, Honeywell and Unicharm, are manufactured by Fortune 500 companies. The production of masks has a complex and exquisite industrial chain. Behind the masks is the competition of materials and equipment. What share do Chinese brand masks occupy in the global market? Chinese textile manufacturing companies still have a long way to go in original technology and underlying technological innovation, as well as in brand creation.

Author: Wang Hua, chief researcher of the “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Center for Textile Industry of Donghua University

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