Since the resumption of work and production in February, the number of global COVID-19 infections has slowly increased from 100,000 to 200,000, and then faster and faster, until It now exceeds 9 million and shows no signs of stopping.
Under the impact of such an unprecedented epidemic, the production and operation of textile workers have been greatly affected. Orders cannot be received, cloth prices continue to fall, and inventories continue to rise. . Just when the entire textile industry was in a downturn, some people seemed to see a life-saving straw due to the hyped concepts, and invested their precious working capital in it. In the end, most people gained nothing but chicken feathers.
Masks: From “hard currency” Become “slow-selling goods”
At the beginning of the year, affected by Due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the insufficient domestic mask production capacity, the mask industry has become a new trend. Anything with the word “mask” in it will become a hot commodity.
Manager Wang is the person in charge of a fabric company. He sensed business opportunities as early as February and invested 500,000 yuan to register a medical equipment manufacturing company. Produces KN95 medical masks, which are “hard to find” during the epidemic.
According to the current production capacity, this factory can produce nearly 10,000 masks per day. However, due to a sudden drop in demand, by the end of May, Manager Wang’s temporarily transformed small factory had a backlog of more than 1 million KN95 masks in stock.
Even so, we dare not stop production – stop It means the factory is closed down. A large number of workers in the original fabric factory relied on the mask market to survive the crisis. But when fabric orders are also bleak, what will these workers do once mask production stops?
Since the production threshold for masks is not high, but the profits are huge, and the demand for conventional gray fabrics has dropped sharply due to the epidemic, there are not a few textile workers who choose to switch to mask production. . From February to March, the profits of masks were indeed very good; but starting from April, due to the sharp rise in the price of raw material meltblown cloth, companies could almost only maintain capital; after May, the supply of masks on the market began to exceed demand, and the books may be Earn money, but the products produced can no longer be sold…
Polyester taffeta, pongee: large orders of 100 million meters are out of fashion, and prices are lower than before
Except In addition to masks, due to the epidemic, protective clothing has also become a necessity in the market.
Due to the insufficient production of non-woven fabrics and the increasing price speculation, cheap pongee and polyester taffeta have come into everyone’s sight.
Due to the epidemic, weaving companies have lacked orders and have been in a low operating rate for a long time. Polyester manufacturers have high polyester stocks, coupled with the historic drop in crude oil prices, In the end, polyester prices plummeted.
The cloth cannot be sold, and the price of raw materials is so low. In mid-April, the price of 210T polyester taffeta was only 0.8-0.9 yuan/meter. However, due to the hype of the concept of protective clothing, a large order of 130 million meters appeared on the market. Many textile companies said that they took advantage of this market to clear out the inventory of 210T polyester taffeta, and more companies converted their machines to 210T. The price of polyester taffeta has also risen sharply to 1.2-1.3 yuan/meter. Because the production threshold is low and the popularity rises, a large number of weaving manufacturers have switched production.
But the good times did not last long, just over a week passed , the popularity of polyester taffeta has dropped rapidly, and the price has also dropped lower than before, only 0.7-0.8 yuan/meter. Recently, when the editor was interviewing weaving companies, one weaving company said that there are no products that are easy to sell recently, but the most difficult to sell must be 190T and 210T polyester taffeta.
In addition, a trader also said that unlike non-woven fabrics, protective clothing made of pongee and polyester taffeta cannot be naturally degraded, so they are basically It cannot be exported to European and American countries. Many of these protective clothing are simply stuck in customs and cannot be moved.
Water jet loom: high profit The dream has awakened, and only excess production capacity is left
The phenomenon of a trend emerging and a bunch of people flocking to it is not an isolated case, 2018 The transfer of water-jet looms in 2006 is a good example and had far-reaching consequences.
In the first half of 2018, due to the transformation of water-jet looms started two years ago, the number of water-jet looms in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas dropped sharply, resulting in a shortage of conventional products. Conventional “bad cloth” such as Yafang and polyester taffeta are recycledEven more moisturizing than functional fabrics such as four-way stretch and T400.
Such high profits have given textile workers the illusion that conventional gray fabrics will continue to be popular. By the summer of 2018, a large number of water-jet looms were installed in northern Jiangsu. , Anhui, Hubei and other peripheral areas were put into production. By the end of 2018, this part of the production capacity gradually entered the market, and the entire market became uncontrollably overcapacity.
It is precisely this kind of overcapacity that led to the “cold winter” in 2019 and also reduced the ability of textile companies to resist risks in the face of the epidemic this year.
Editor’s note: There is never anything new under the sun , even with the lessons of failure again and again, when a so-called trend appears, countless people will still flock in. Even in the end, except for a few people who make a lot of money, most people will succeed. Broken blood flow. It is human nature to pursue profits, and it is not a bad thing to seize the opportunity. However, before doing these things, you cannot just rely on enthusiasm, but you also need to think twice before acting.
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