The Gate Of Upgrading Socks Industry Cluster

　　 News playback

On October 18, 2011, the 10th China International Socks Expo was grandly opened in Datang Town, Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, the "International Socks City". Since the first sock fair was held in 1999, Zhuji has successfully held nine sock fairs. The sock fair has a long reputation, and domestic and foreign businessmen have come in a stream. In Datang Town, there have been more than 10 sock enterprises with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan, including Shenbaili, Danjiya, Shugongfang, Dongfangyuan, Senwaite, etc., newly launched high-end silk sock production projects, involving sock production, raw material processing, production finalization, testing and sales and other fields.

At the same time, the world's largest investment of 2 billion yuan hosiery Market - China Datang The sock industry city also officially opened on this day. As other upgrading and reconstruction projects are launched in succession, the world-famous "International Socks Capital" Datang Town of Zhuji will once again boost the Transformation and upgrading 。

　 Industry observation

Yiwu, as a "famous city in China's sock industry", and Datang Town, Zhuji, as a "famous town in China's sock industry", have been locked in competition and cooperation in the sock industry for many years. In October last year, Datang Town in Zhuji was upgraded to become the sock market in Datang Textile Socks Industry City in Zhejiang, which attracted the attention of the industry for a time. In the industry, Yiwu's sock industry takes a medium to high end line, which is fundamentally different from the low-end market of Datang Town. What new pattern will emerge in this upgrading war of the sock industry between the two sides?

The sock industry in Datang Town, Zhuji City started in the 1970s and flourished in the 1990s. In 2002, the town built Zhejiang Datang Light Textile Socks Industry City, which includes four major trading markets of light textile raw materials, socks, hosiery machines and logistics. Its annual turnover is said to exceed 10 billion yuan. In recent years, in order to adapt to the competitive environment, Zhuji has begun to upgrade this market. With a total investment of 2 billion yuan, the newly built professional market, flagship store, headquarters building, museum, exhibition center, business center, modern textile raw material market, and modern knitting machinery market of the sock industry are based on the existing four major markets, trying to build a Industrial chain Type market group. It is understood that this upgrade is the first step, with a total investment of 180 million yuan and more than 1300 stores. It is also an upgraded version of the socks market of Datang Textile Socks Industry City, that is, the fourth generation market. The upgraded Datang sock market will be the world's largest industrial chain market group. According to the analysis of industry experts, the annual turnover of the new textile socks industry city is expected to exceed 15 billion yuan.

In the face of the "raw material price rise storm" that began last year, Datang Town Government formulated policies in a timely manner to guide enterprises to accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading, and support sock enterprises to invest heavily in building stockings production lines with lower costs and higher profits. At present, Danjiya, Shenbaili, Dongfangyuan and other key sock weaving enterprises plan to add more than 2000 imported computer sock machines. The total investment of the single sock project is planned to exceed 1 billion yuan. At present, some equipment has been installed and produced in succession.

The transformation and upgrading is an immediate forced response of Datang Town Government to the "raw material price rise storm". At the same time, Datang Town Government believes that the long-term development of the sock industry is more worthy of consideration. The people of Datang are not satisfied with developing the sock manufacturing industry. In addition to selling goods through the Yiwu market, they have also paid attention to the cultivation of the market for a long time. Establishing a new market group has become the inevitable choice for the town to combine industry and trade and prosper the town through trade.

As for the upgrading of the sock industry of Datang in Zhuji, some insiders believe that the rise of professional market segments will put pressure on Yiwu. Some experts also analyzed that the level and brand influence of Yiwu's sock industry have significantly improved in recent years, and are better than competitors. According to the sales data of Yiwu Sock Industry Association from January to October last year, the once depressed export sales showed a trend of recovery. In addition, few foreigners come to China to purchase only one kind of commodity, and Yiwu market has more advantages because of its low comprehensive procurement cost.

He Jinyou, secretary-general of Yiwu Chamber of Commerce, said that as early as the early 1980s, some Zhuji people came to Yiwu New Road to sell socks. Up to now, about 50% of Datang socks will be sold in Yiwu market. Yiwu's sock industry is famous for its exports. In the first three quarters of last year, the international economic situation was extremely complex, and the factors of instability and uncertainty were increasing. Normal international trade was severely impacted and challenged. From the perspective of foreign trade export of Yiwu's sock industry, the number and amount of sock exports in the first two quarters were mostly in a downward trend, and only in March and June the amount showed an increase trend. It was not until the third quarter that the decline in export volume was alleviated and the export amount began to grow in an all-round way.

Domestically, labor shortage, rising prices of raw and auxiliary materials, and accelerated appreciation of the RMB have increased the difficulties of foreign trade production enterprises, which directly led to higher product costs and increased export pressure. Timely guarantee of export and product upgrading have become the only way for enterprises. Yiwu sock enterprises are using their own methods to deal with the crisis, increasing investment in science and technology, and in-depth research on creative design and foreign demand; At the same time, expand the coverage of export countries and expand the markets of Russia, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and other countries and regions on the basis of consolidating the European and American markets. In addition to product upgrading, enterprises also pay close attention to the trade situation upgrade According to the data, as a "famous city in China's sock industry", Yiwu now has more than 1400 sock manufacturing enterprises and more than 60000 hosiery machines, of which more than 10000 are advanced imported hosiery machines. This shows that the overall manufacturing strength of Yiwu sock industry is still at the leading level in the industry.

Yiwu sock industry has a strong equipment advantage compared with Zhuji Datang. The city has more than 50000 sets of advanced equipment of Italian Ronatti, Martek, Shengge, Korean Fusheng, Brother and other brands, with a total investment of more than 8 billion yuan. This also gives Yiwu socks industry a strong brand advantage. The whole industry has 7 provincial famous trademarks, 6 provincial famous brand products, 18 Chinese famous trademarks and 3 Chinese famous brands.

The "symbolic brand of Chinese sock industry", representing the highest brand honor in the domestic sock industry, has been in Yiwu for two consecutive times, namely "Langsha" and "Mengna". Langsha put forward the goal of becoming the "world sock king". In 2011, Langsha invested more than US $100 million to introduce about 4000 new hosiery machines from Italy to update equipment and expand production scale. Mengna's sales network is all over China, Europe and the United States. There are 36 sales agents and more than 300 franchised stores in China. There are branches or offices in New York, Milan, Italy, Dusseldorf, Germany, London, Japan, Osaka, Moscow, Russia and other places.

"High end manufacturing, institutionalized management and brand building have opened a new development situation for Yiwu's sock industry." Jin Shanfu, secretary-general of Yiwu Sock Industry Association, said that last year, there were 52 large-scale sock enterprises with an annual output value of more than 20 million yuan in Yiwu, with a total output value of 6.7 billion yuan. Next, Yiwu sock industry will continue to improve its core competitiveness. The Association will strive to build three comprehensive service platforms: first, establish a public service platform, for example, by connecting with the creative industry, to send more design talents to the industry in short supply; The second is to establish an e-commerce platform for international trade, so that sock enterprises can better go global through the virtual market; The third is to establish a standard formulation platform, so that more sock enterprises can improve their manufacturing strength and expand their influence by participating in the formulation of international standards, national standards, industrial standards and alliance standards.

　　 Extended Reading

Under the influence of the gathering effect of Datang sock industry, Liaoyuan "Northeast sock industry industrial park" in Jilin, which is a rising star, also makes full use of the sock expo, and has achieved great development in just a few years. In 2008, Liaoyuan won the title of "Hometown of Cotton Socks in China". In 2009, Liaoyuan was named "Famous City of Socks Industry in China" by China Textile Industry Association and China Knitting Industry Association. The Northeast Socks Industrial Park was identified by the provincial government as the "Jilin Province Characteristic Industrial Park".

Liaoyuan sock enterprises once had a single product, reduced cost advantage, and the impact of the financial crisis, many Liaoyuan sock enterprises went to the edge of profits. A few years ago, it began to transform and upgrade, updated technology, and gradually shifted its sales direction from foreign trade to domestic trade. The Northeast Socks Industrial Park has proposed the operation mode of "1+10+N", "platform+service, base+market, chain+brand" to build the Northeast Socks Industrial Park into the largest cotton socks production base.

In 2010, Liaoyuan sock industry experienced an increase in raw material prices, freight and labor costs, and the total cost nearly doubled. But this time, it has little impact on the Northeast Socks Textile Industrial Park. Driven by the leading enterprises in the Northeast Socks Textile Industrial Park, more and more sock enterprises have embarked on the road of transformation and upgrading, and began to seek benefits from both ends of the "smile curve".

　　 Reporter's notes

At present, there are still many textiles shrouded in the shadow of the financial crisis, but socks are outstanding. As the three representatives of China's sock industry cluster, Yiwu, Datang and Liaoyuan sock industry has gone through the stages of price war, product homogenization and low product grade, and has developed to the present stage of precise product positioning, stable quality and strong brand. It is not difficult to see that industrial upgrading is a favorable driver for the forward development of the entire industry.

Each cluster integrates its own cluster advantages, creates a whole industry chain environment, and focuses on both domestic and international markets. The upgrading and adjustment of the industrial structure, scientific and technological level and human resources have enhanced the anti risk ability of the entire industry.

Whether it is the 12th China (Yiwu) International Socks, Knitting and Dyeing Machinery Exhibition in 2011 or the 10th China International Socks Expo, it provides not only a platform for efficient integration and docking within the industry, but also an opportunity to show the grand development of the entire industry. The benign competition and cooperation between sock industry clusters has promoted the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry, and also promoted the upgrading of related industries. In the future, more famous Chinese sock enterprises like Langsha and Mengna will go to the international market.