Man-made fibers:Quantity reduction & quality improvemen

by+Niu+Fang+Zhao+Zihan

On the occasion of the end of the 12th Five-Year Program， the reporter of China Textile had an interview with Duan Xiaoping， President of China Chemical Fibers Association， for an in-depth understanding of man-made fibers current status， future development space， industry development environment changes as well as some of the hidden phenomena and trends that the industry has revealed.

China Textile： Could you please summarize the major achievements of Chinas man-made fibers industry during the 12th Five-Year Program period？

Duan Xiaoping： Id like to use three sentences to summarize the major achievements of Chinas chemical fiber industry during the 12th Five-Year Program period. The first is that a worldwide leading position has been gradually established in the field of conventional fiber production. The second is that high performance fiber production has been on the upgrade everywhere， significantly reducing the gap with the developed countries for nearly 30 years. The third is that the industrial chain collaboration and brand building enjoy popular support， seeing initial results.

China Textile： Chinas chemical fiber output will have reached 46 million tons by the end of the 12th Five-Year Program. It has been already an extremely large figure， which has given rise to a number of discussions around Chinas chemical fiber production capacity. Could you please make an analysis of the total capacity issues in the future development of the industry？ How about the development space in the future？

Duan Xiaoping： In the past twenty years， the global textile fiber processing volume maintained a 3.02% annual growth rate， and Chinas growth rate was far higher than the global. With global economic growth and per capita fiber consumption increases， global fiber processing volume is still expected to see further growth at an average annual growth rate of 2.8% to 3.0%. The most will come from manmade fibers and Chinas growth rate will still remain above the global average， but Chinas growth rate will present a substantial decline owing to the original base number， together with the restructuring of the global division of labor and the moderation of Chinese economy.

In the current 13th Five-Year Program， the goals of total amount is described as： by 2020， chemical fiber production will have reached 55 million tons， with an average annual growth rate adjustment from former 9.2% to 3.6%.

China Textile： During the 12th Five-Year Program period， Chinas economic development environment has tremendous changes. Could you please analyze the development environment changes of chemical fiber industry in that period as well as the impacts to the development of enterprises？endprint

Duan Xiaoping： The current Chinese economy has entered the new normal when various impacts to the development of the industry have changed， including consumer demand， investment demand， exports and balance of payments， production capacity and industrial organization， the factors of production， market competition， resource and environmental constraints， financial risk accumulation and resolving， and resource allocation model and macro-control methods. Tertiary industrys contribution to the GDP showed a rapid increase while the contribution of capital-intensive industries to the industrial economic growth is gradually being reduced. The carrying capacity of resources and the environment is in a downward trend. Global industrial revolution has raised the curtain.

“The Belt and Road” Initiative is contributing to global chemical fiber industry division adjustment. Recently， economists also put forward “supply-front reforms”， proposing new guidelines to the development of the industry. And Chinas chemical fiber industry has also entered the “new normal” development when the competition between enterprises has been gradually developed into such soft power as resources， channel， brand and standards， bidding farewell to the past competition in equipment， scale， yield， and cost. Enterprises are required to speed up the adjustment of product structure and technological innovation， capacity increase control， inventory optimization， and application development in order to develop new products to meet market demand relying on technological innovation.

China Textile： On the occasion of the end of the 12th Five-Year Program， which important phenomenon and trends appeared in the development of the industry？ What kind of certain direction does it indicate？

Duan Xiaoping： A big differentiation in the development of the industry emerged from last year and is gradually becoming obvious. Some SMEs who are doing a good job in product development are enjoying profitability as that in 2011. What behind this phenomenon reveals a trend of the future development of the industry， i.e. those enterprises focusing on product development and differentiation will be given priority in entering a healthy development.

In addition， large-scale enterprises in the industry have also accelerated the pace of extending to the petrochemical industry. For example， Shenghong and Hengyi are beginning the layout of more front-end of the industrial chain. Future chemical fiber industry should， by vertical integration and horizontal integration， encourage large-scale， strong， and complete set of integrated enterprises of PTA， polyester business， caprolactam， and nylon to be engaged in refining industry， achieving integrated production of oil refining， chemical industry， and chemical fibers. It is expected that by 2020 there will have been three to five enterprises who can achieve integrated sales revenue of more than 150 billion yuan， further enhancing the industrial concentration and overall competitiveness.endprint