Accepted global economy The situation has dragged down. Since last year, textile enterprises in coastal areas of China have been complaining about "difficulties". At the same time, a number of large cotton textile groups have gone west to focus on Xinjiang, the largest cotton producing area in China. Youngor, Huafu, Giant Eagle, etc spin Enterprises have been "going west" one after another, quietly setting up a layout

This scene reminds us of the large-scale "eastward movement" of "Dongding" in the 1990s. However, unlike the central government at that time, this round of "moving to the west" was completely a spontaneous action of textile enterprises. In more than 10 years, the "moving from east to west" has changed from passive to active. So, a lot spin If the enterprise moves westward, can it change "crisis" into "business opportunity", "reborn" as soon as possible, and complete the industrial upgrading? At the same time, what are the prospects and risks of enterprises going west? How can foreign investors overcome acclimatization?

????? Textile enterprises“ crisis ”"Going West" in the Middle

For our country Textile clothing In terms of the industry, 2008 is undoubtedly a year on the cusp of the storm. From the US subprime mortgage crisis to the global financial crisis, all negative factors were released and intensified in this year, and a large number of textile and clothing export enterprises went bankrupt in succession.

However, throughout the country Textile industry While the investment in fixed assets continues to decline, the industrial gradient transfer from east to west continues. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first 10 months of 2008, the investment in the eastern region has declined year on year, while the investment in the textile industry in the western region has increased by more than 40% year on year.

Mainland enterprises investing in Xinjiang believe that in recent years, the price of raw cotton has been rising, and cotton textile enterprises urgently need to find a way to digest and increase costs in the market. Investing in Xinjiang can directly obtain cotton resources and save a lot of intermediate links. With the adjustment of the national textile industry layout, it is a general trend to march into the central and western regions.

At present, Xinjiang has a clear market positioning for the development of the textile industry. In the "11th Five Year Plan", the autonomous region government proposed to give full play to the advantages of cotton resources to revitalize the textile industry, focusing on expanding and strengthening the cotton textile industry. To this end, we should encourage and support powerful large enterprises and groups at home and abroad to graft and transform textile enterprises in the region, and build Xinjiang into an important national production base for high-quality textile raw materials and intermediate products It is an important trading center for textile raw materials and products in the central and western regions.

Since the Central Asian countries gradually opened their markets in the 1990s, their economies have gradually recovered, and their national income and consumption levels have also increased. Relatively speaking, the light industry of Central Asian countries is backward, and consumer goods have been basically imported.

In the whole Central Asian market, 80% of light industrial products, including textiles, come from China. The pace of economic recovery in this region is accelerating, consumer demand is rising, and the market potential is huge, which will provide huge market expansion space for Chinese enterprises. Therefore, investment in Xinjiang's cotton textile industry can make full use of the geographical advantages of Xinjiang's proximity to Central Asia, directly face the new market with growing demand, and expand China's textile export channels.

???? ? Can the new "moving from east to west" break through the "survival dilemma"

At present, Xinjiang's textile industry has a serious shortage of ordinary technicians and senior technicians. The quality and skills of the existing labor force cannot adapt to large-scale industrial production. Among the nearly 90000 textile workers in Xinjiang, only 0.8% are skilled workers above senior level, 3% are intermediate level workers, and 6.2% are junior level workers. Most of the workers have no technical level, which has made some enterprises that have invested in Xinjiang in the past fall into the dilemma of "products with orders, production without skilled workers".

Although the local government and enterprises have started training, it is difficult to quench their thirst at a distance, and the training costs are a great burden for both enterprises and local governments. Therefore, with more and more textile enterprises coming to Xinjiang to invest and build factories, the "shortage of skilled workers" cannot be greatly improved in the short term.

In terms of transportation, the long-distance transportation cost will greatly offset the advantages of investing in Xinjiang. Inland cotton textile enterprises have invested in Xinjiang's cotton production areas, but the high cost of cotton yarn transportation has troubled these enterprises to a large extent.

Xinjiang cotton outward transportation implements the transportation price of agricultural products, while cotton yarn implements the transportation price of industrial products; The same wagon can load 43 tons of cotton, and the cotton yarn can only load 30 tons. Take the freight rate of cotton and cotton yarn from Urumqi to Guangzhou as an example. The average freight rate per ton of cotton is less than 400 yuan, while the freight rate per ton of yarn is nearly 700 yuan. The cost of outbound transportation is far higher than that of cotton.

What is more serious is that the amount of materials going out of Xinjiang every year is far more than the amount of materials going into Xinjiang. Especially in October, with the centralized listing of cotton, tomato sauce, sugar and other agricultural products, the transportation contradiction will further intensify, and the export of cotton yarn will inevitably be restricted.

In fact, the textile industry, as an industry with a high degree of division of labor, lacks the advantages of industrial clusters, and the supporting environment of Xinjiang's textile industry has obvious disadvantages compared with the coastal cities where textile enterprises gather. In order to ensure the normal operation of the equipment, every textile enterprise investing in Xinjiang needs to bear more than ten maintenance workers. In areas where textile enterprises are concentrated, such as the Yangtze River Delta, enterprises need to buy machinery or maintenance equipment. It can be solved by simply going to the nearby textile machinery market or calling the relevant machinery sales and maintenance enterprises.

In this situation, it is still unrealistic to invest in Xinjiang to shorten the distance between products and markets, respond quickly to customer needs, etc. It is with this in mind that Hong Kong Cotton Industry, which has invested in Aksu, the largest commodity cotton production base in China, for a long time, transported the locally produced cotton chips to Shandong printing and dyeing plants for further processing and sales.

????? The phenomenon of "a swarm of bees" in industrial transfer deserves vigilance

Domestic textile enterprises investing in Xinjiang are not without considering various "positive" and "negative" factors, and they are also actively looking for countermeasures. In view of the problem that long-distance transportation raises costs, Xu Zhiwu, general manager of Youngor Group Kashgar Cotton Textile Mill, said that enterprises should gradually strengthen the development of high-end products and offset transportation costs with high added value of products.

As for the low quality of human resources, some investors believe that Xinjiang employees can be trained in mainland enterprises to broaden their horizons, improve their comprehensive quality, and then return to Xinjiang to become excellent management and technical talents of enterprises.

As the main raw material of yarn products, cotton accounts for about 70% of the cost, and its quality directly affects the quality of yarn. Therefore, the importance of controlling cotton resources is self-evident. Whoever has mastered the resources will take the lead in the market competition. Xu Zhiwu said that Youngor Group's investment in resource producing areas is purely based on its long-term development strategy, which is also the valuable experience provided to all enterprises by domestic and international market practices.

Industry insiders generally believe that the trend of China's textile industry moving from east to west will continue and become increasingly obvious in the future. In the long run, the global financial crisis may accelerate the process of survival of the fittest in China's clothing and textile enterprises. In this round of "shuffling", the central and western regions are likely to become the production bases of primary products in the textile and clothing industry, while the eastern regions will gradually develop into textile and clothing industry regions focusing on brand, channel construction and new technology research and development.

Zhu Lanfen, vice president of China Cotton Textile Industry Association, said that for mainland enterprises, this opportunity should be used to achieve industrial upgrading, rather than simply expanding production capacity; The government of the western region should not refuse to accept the textile and clothing enterprises from the coastal areas, and should choose to avoid the "swarm" phenomenon in the industrial transfer.

Especially when the raw cotton market fluctuates frequently and the investment environment in Xinjiang is not yet complete, enterprises must consider the local characteristics and specific conditions when investing in Xinjiang, truly realize the original intention of reducing costs and expanding the market, and minimize the investment risk. They must not rush to the top and then rush to the bottom.

Editor in charge: vivi