"In a few days, our company will receive two major equipment – the most advanced ammonia nitrogen treatment equipment in China and the state-of-the-art digital printing machine in the world," said Xuan Jiajie, deputy general manager of Shaoxing High Sun Apparel & Textiles Co., Ltd. This month, the company is busy not only in production, but also in transformation of workshop and in personnel training.

Though in the traditional slack season, many printing & dyeing enterprises in Shaoxing are as busy as High Sun Co. For example, Zhejiang Legao Industrial Co., Ltd. is busy in the installation of the "waterless dyeing vessel" imported from Switzerland. "Next month, it will be put into commissioning run," said Wang Guobiao, deputy general manager of the company. "Though we have been busy for two months, we feel excited at the thought of no water will be used in dyeing of fabric."

Preliminary statistics show that in the first five months of this year, about one-third of the printing & dyeing enterprises in Shaoxing carried out technical reform. Up to now, the total investment has surpassed CNY 4 billion. "This is another wave of technical reform following the one in last year," said a responsible person at the innovation and cooperation department of the municipal commission of economy and information technology. "A number of competent and thoughtful printing & dyeing enterprises constitute the main force in this technical reform campaign. They are dedicated to readjusting products, renovating process and upgrading technologies".

Last March, Shaoxing took the most stringent action in history to harness the printing & dyeing industry. As a result, it has cut down the number of printing & dyeing enterprises from 336 to 248, eliminated 4.9 billion meters of outdated capacity and reduced the wastewater discharge by 26.23 million tons. Under the pressure, the local printing & dyeing industry has invested more than CNY 12 billion in technical reform, equivalent to the total of the previous three years.

In 2016, High Sun Co. scrapped off a part of low-end production capacity and reduced the wastewater discharge from 5,000 tons to 3,200 tons. "This year, we bite the bullet to make the decision to invest big money in technical reform," said Xuan Jiajie. Now we go forward without burden and concentrate our advantages on developing high-end customers. The advanced digital printing machine we bought from Switzerland is to serve well-known brands such as Armani.

Only by seamlessly docking equipment, process and technology with high-end market can enterprises gain more bargaining power with global high-end fabric users. In Keqiao where printing & dyeing enterprises are concentrated, a number of "survived" printing & dyeing enterprises of certain scale focus their strategy on developing printing & dyeing 4.0. Zhejiang Yingfeng Textile Co., Ltd. is stepping up the construction of "smart plant". "In the future, energy consumption can be precisely controlled, and order management and process can be remotely controlled," said Fu Shuangli, president of the company.

"If stopping production and undertaking reform one year ago are actions passively taken by many enterprises under pressure, then this year's increasing investment in technical reform are active actions of more and more enterprises. This reflects the confidence of printing & dyeing enterprises from one side," said Qiu Jianrong, vice chairman of the provincial printing & dyeing industry association and president of Shaoxing Feiya Printing & dyeing Co., Ltd. Shaoxing's achievements in rectification and upgrading of printing & dyeing industry has attracted great attention of the entire industry. Over 300 printing & dyeing enterprises from all over China come to Shaoxing to learn Shaoxing's practice.

In the first four months of this year, the printing & dyeing industry in Shaoxing realized 16.7-percent growth in sales revenue and 24.7-percent growth in total profits.

In the first five months of this year, the value-added industrial output of the printing & dyeing industry rose 14.7% year-on-year to CNY 7.2 billion.

Source: CHINA TEXTILE LEADER Express