From January to February, China's technical textiles industry has achieved a stable start. And its growth of value-added industrial output has returned to positive for the first time since May 2021. Based on the survey from the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textile Association (CNITA), the prosperity index of China's technical textiles industry was 73.1 in the first two months, down 8.6 percentage points year-on-year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the operating income of enterprises above designated size in China's technical textiles industry back to positive growth from January to February, with a year-on-year growth rate of 1.4%. Their total profit fell by 21.3% year-on-year, with a much lower decline than that of 2021. The profit margin was 5.0%, which decreased 1.4 percentage points year-on-year. According to China Customs, the exports of China's technical textiles industry in January-February reached US$ 7.42 billion, down 20.6%* year-on-year. The decline in the exports of pandemic prevention materials drove the total decline. (* From January 1, 2022, the customs codes of some commodities in the technical textiles industry have been adjusted. The data in this report is for reference only due to the lack of year-on-year data of the same caliber.)

There are big differences in the operation quality and economic benefits of various fields in the technical textiles industry. After the high-speed development in 2020 and 2021, nonwovens saw a large adjustment this year. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the output of nonwovens enterprises above designated size dropped by 6.0% from January to February; their operating income and total profit decreased by 7.7% and 45.6% year-on-year respectively; the profit margin was 4.2%, seeing a year-on-year decrease of 2.9 percentage points. From January to February, China exported 195,000 tons of nonwovens, seeing a year-on-year decrease of 21.0%. In terms of nonwovens-related products, the exports of surgical masks and nonwovens protective clothing were US$ 950 million and US$ 160 million, respectively, both with more than 60% of the decline. Among them, the exports of protective clothing have back to the level of 2019; the exports of sanitary products maintained relatively strong momentum. From January to February, China exported US$ 430 million of disposable diapers and sanitary napkins, seeing a year-on-year increase of 20.8%.

From January to February, the operating income and total profit of enterprises above designated size in the field of twine & rope (cable) increased by 6.0% and 2.9% year-on-year respectively. And their profit margin was 5.9%. The operating income and total profit of enterprises above designated size in the field of ribbon and cord fabric (in tyres) grew 8.2% and 10.1% year-on-year respectively, with a 5.3% of profit margin. The operating income and total profit of awnings enterprises above designated size upped by 19.2% and 24.7% year-on-year respectively, with a 5.5% of profit margin. And the operating income and total profit of other technical textiles enterprises above designated size, including filtration and geotextiles, both recovered to positive growth, with a year-on-year growth of 9.9% and 5.9% respectively. And their profit margin reached 6.2%, hitting the highest level in the technical textiles industry.

Source: CHINA TEXTILE LEADER Express