Current situation and thinking of the development of anti epidemic textile industry such as masks and protective clothing

This paper is based on the questionnaire survey of 176 textile related enterprises

1、 Introduction

Anti epidemic textiles are a kind of important products in the field of industrial textiles, including masks, protective clothing and disinfectant wipes. In just one year, great changes have taken place in China's anti epidemic textile industry. China has taken the lead in resuming work and production in an all-round way, playing the role of the largest supplier of anti epidemic materials. The production capacity and output of related products have been enlarged by tens of times or even hundreds of times in a year, which has greatly driven the export market. According to public data, from March 2020 to the end of last year, China exported 224.2 billion masks, worth 340 billion yuan, including 65 billion medical masks, 2.31 billion pieces of protective clothing, including 773 million pieces of medical protective clothing.

Under the new situation of drastic fluctuations in the anti epidemic textile industry, in order to further grasp the development status of anti epidemic textiles and form industry suggestions for optimizing industrial development, China Industrial Textile Industry Association launched the "suggestions on optimizing the development of anti epidemic textile industry" from January 6 to 11, 2021 for enterprises related to key anti epidemic materials such as masks, protective clothing, raw and auxiliary materials and equipment A questionnaire survey was conducted. As of January 11, 2021, a total of 176 valid questionnaires have been received. The specific analysis is as follows.

2、 Basic information and analysis of the questionnaire

（1） Basic information of the enterprise

Basic situation of enterprises: the survey enterprises come from 22 provinces, autonomous regions and cities. As shown in Figure 1, the top five enterprises are 43 in Jiangsu (24%), 26 in Guangdong (14%), 17 in Zhejiang (9%), 16 in Shandong (9%) and 10 in Fujian (5%), which are basically consistent with the domestic distribution of national anti epidemic textile enterprises to a certain extent. The sample data are representative.

The survey sample enterprises cover 8 types of enterprises, including comprehensive, mask products, protective clothing products, spunbonded spunlaced nonwovens, melt blown nonwovens, other raw and auxiliary materials, and scientific research institutions. Mask and protective clothing production enterprises accounted for 47%, of which 41% were in normal operation before the epidemic. 79% of the statistical enterprises were established in 2016 and before.

(1) Types of enterprises

In terms of enterprise types, the sample enterprises are involved in the whole industry chain of epidemic prevention textiles. As shown in Figure 2, 30% of the enterprises are comprehensive enterprises, which usually produce masks / protective clothing and nonwovens at the same time, 11% of the enterprises produce masks alone, and 6% of the enterprises produce protective clothing alone, with a total of 83 enterprises (47%). Spunbond, Spunlaced and other nonwovens enterprises account for 15%, melt blown nonwovens enterprises account for 11%, breathable film, nonwovens equipment and components, mask machine and sticking machine, mask belt, nose clip and other raw and auxiliary materials and equipment enterprises account for 21%, university scientific research units account for 4%, and trade circulation enterprises account for 2%. Among the enterprises related to masks and protective clothing, 42% of them were in normal operation before the epidemic, the remaining 51% were transferred from manufacturing industries such as raw materials, clothing, home textiles, sanitary products and food after the epidemic, and the other 7% were transferred from non manufacturing industries.

(2) Time of establishment

In terms of the establishment time of enterprises, 14 (8%) of the enterprises in the questionnaire are newly established in 2020, 22 are newly established from 2017 to 2019, and the vast majority (140) are existing enterprises newly established in 2016 and before, as shown in Figure 3.

（2） Production and operation status and expectation

Among the sample enterprises, the production and operation situation in 2020 is generally good, and they have optimistic expectations for 2021. Most enterprises will maintain stable production capacity in the next three years. Among them, 64% of the enterprises in the mask and protective clothing sector will have a relatively good (37%) or very good (27%) production and operation in 2020, and 53% of the enterprises are expected to have a relatively good (39%) or very good (14%) production and operation in 2021.

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 in 2021-2023, 20% plan to increase investment in the field of epidemic prevention textiles, and only 9% will gradually withdraw.

（3） Capacity and layout

In terms of production capacity and layout, more than half of the enterprises think that the anti epidemic textile related overcapacity, some enterprises think that the high-end product capacity is insufficient, and few enterprises think that the industrial chain layout is reasonable or very reasonable. On the whole, it is considered that the production capacity of anti epidemic textiles is in excess, and the production capacity of spunbonded nonwovens, melt blown nonwovens and other raw materials is higher than that of masks and protective clothing products.

60% of the enterprises think that the mask and protective clothing products have excess capacity, 29% think that although the production capacity is excess, the production capacity of high-end products is insufficient, and only 1% think that the production capacity is insufficient. 64% of the enterprises think that the raw materials such as meltblown fabrics and spunbonded fabrics have excess capacity, and 28% 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 run, the demands of enterprises mainly focus on market supervision, emergency reserve, technology upgrading and so on. In the long run, in addition to market supervision and technology upgrading, enterprises have a strong demand for cultivating incremental market, and the demand for emergency reserve is relatively weak, which is obviously different from the short-term demand.

In terms of the most urgent problems in the short-term healthy development of the industry, among the six problems of improving the market supervision, establishing and improving 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 excess capacity, and improving the regional layout of the industrial chain, the top three problems are: 55% of enterprises propose to improve the market supervision According to the governor, 53% of the enterprises suggested to establish and improve the emergency reserve of epidemic prevention textiles, and 51% suggested to improve the technological competitiveness of the industry and increase the technological breakthrough of the industry.

In terms of the most effective suggestions and measures for the long-term healthy development of the industry, among the five measures of 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 market supervision of epidemic prevention textiles, and standardization of stock market, the top three measures are: 60% of enterprises suggest cultivation of incremental market and 45% of enterprises It is suggested to standardize the stock market, and 44% of the suggestions encourage the industry to upgrade its technology.

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

3、 Conclusion

Based on the above questionnaire survey results, after the great changes in the industry, most of the enterprises in the anti epidemic textile industry, such as masks and protective clothing, have a good production and operation situation in 2020, and the expectation for 2021 is not pessimistic. However, the situation of overcapacity and unreasonable industrial chain layout exists in reality, and all kinds of enterprises in the industrial chain have different demands for the future development.

The research has the following preliminary conclusions:

1. In terms of production capacity and layout, there is a surplus of production capacity related to anti epidemic textiles, and there is room for further optimization of the layout of domestic anti epidemic textiles. Industrial chains are mostly concentrated in economically developed regions such as South China, East China, Beijing and Tianjin, while less developed provinces. In terms of product types, the production capacity and layout of comprehensive enterprises and product manufacturing enterprises in South China and East China are relatively concentrated, and the raw and auxiliary materials in North China and central China are relatively concentrated. Due to the small number of relevant enterprises in Northeast, northwest and southwest provinces, the unreasonable layout may be more obvious.

2. In terms of production and operation, in 2020, the production and operation of comprehensive enterprises are generally good, and most of these enterprises were established in 2016 and before; the production and operation of newly established melt blown nonwovens production enterprises are not ideal, with a large proportion. Compared with other enterprises, the general production and operation situation of non-woven fabrics, accessories, equipment and other related enterprises of anti epidemic textiles, non manufacturing enterprises and other converted masks and protective clothing products is not ideal. The production and operation situation of various enterprises in 2020 affects their production and operation expectation in 2021

3. In terms of investment intention, the enterprises with good production and operation in 2020 tend to increase the proportion of investment, while the enterprises with poor production and operation mostly choose to reduce production, store production capacity, or even gradually withdraw.

4. In terms of enterprise demands, enterprise demands mainly focus on market supervision, incremental market cultivation, emergency reserve, science and technology improvement, etc. In the related demands, all enterprises in the short-term industrial chain generally agree that they need to strengthen market supervision, establish emergency reserves and improve the competitiveness of the industry. Long term industrial chain enterprises generally believe that it is necessary to strengthen market supervision, guide technology upgrading and cultivate incremental market. Mask and protective clothing enterprises pay more attention to the establishment of emergency reserve of epidemic prevention textiles and optimization of industrial layout of epidemic prevention textiles than other enterprises.

To sum up, after the rapid development of anti epidemic textiles such as masks and protective clothing, we need to pay attention to the problems of overcapacity and unreasonable layout. In the future, we need to take a variety of measures to optimize the industrial layout of anti epidemic textiles, reasonably adjust the production capacity structure, properly develop and cultivate the incremental market, and improve the overall technical competitiveness of the industry. This is of great significance to improve 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.