Textile and clothing are one of the traditional advantages and economic pillar industries in the Yangtze River Delta, with obvious product characteristics, significant cluster effects, active market enterprises, and strong employment drivers. They have been included in the "Outline of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Integration Development Plan" as one of the ten major areas for building world-class manufacturing clusters. Nowadays, with the acceleration of integration in the Yangtze River Delta, the textile trade between the three provinces and one city is becoming increasingly close. According to the big data of Manbang Freight, the ton weight of textile transportation in the Yangtze River Delta has increased by 14.7% year-on-year in the past year, and the year-on-year growth at the beginning of 2024 has reached 53.8%. The textile transportation in the "three provinces and one city" (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui) has ushered in a "good start".
"Su Daqiang" delivers more and heavier goods, with "Suzhou Weaving" products leading the sales trend
As one of the important birthplaces of China's textile industry, Jiangsu Province's textile industry has formed a complete industrial chain from fibers, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing to clothing, home textiles, industrial textiles, as well as textile machinery and equipment, with a solid textile foundation. Among them, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Nantong have particularly outstanding industrial chain completeness, and the number of leading enterprises is also leading in the country.
Thanks to online sales, intelligent manufacturing, and stable industrial and supply chain advantages, the textile industry in Jiangsu Province has performed well in 2023. Recently, Manbang released a report on textile freight data, which showed that at the beginning of 2024, the tonnage of textile shipments in Jiangsu Province increased by 44.5% year-on-year, and for the whole year of 2023, it increased by 22.29% year-on-year. The total weight of textile shipments increased by 5.2% year-on-year, achieving a "dual wing flight". At the same time, with the development of freight logistics, Jiangsu textiles use "silk" as a medium, and thousands of miles of "trade" and "line" lead. Nowadays, textiles from Taizhou, Jiangsu have even been transported to Ali, Xinjiang, more than 5000 kilometers away.
In Suzhou, a major city in the textile and clothing industry, there is not only a complete textile industry chain from a drop of oil to a piece of cloth and from a single thread to a brand, but also the birth of Fortune 500 enterprises. The local Chinese Oriental Silk Market has gathered more than 7000 enterprises engaged in fabric production and trade. Every day, trucks filled with goods enter and exit, which is a microcosm of the booming supply and demand of textiles.
According to the relevant data in the report, Suzhou continues to lead the top five in terms of textile shipment volume and textile receiving cities in Jiangsu: the shipment ton volume far exceeds the second and third place of shipments within the province, Nantong and Wuxi, and is three times the fourth and fifth place of shipments within the province; On the list of destinations for Jiangsu textiles, Suzhou also outperforms Shaoxing and Nantong, almost equal to the sum of the receiving volumes of Jiaxing and Linyi.
Industrial synergy and integration, leading trade exchanges on the front line
In any integrated plan or scheme of the Yangtze River Delta, "industrial collaboration" is a prominent chapter.
2023 marks the fifth anniversary of the Yangtze River Delta's integrated development becoming a national strategy. Over the past five years, "three provinces and one city" has closely focused on the keywords of integration and high-quality, continuously promoting the transformation of "blueprint planning" into a "realistic picture", and the textile industry has become a beneficiary of this strategy.
According to the report data, the Yangtze River Delta region occupies three seats in the "Top Shipping Tonnage of Departure Provinces" list, with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui ranking first, second, and fifth respectively. Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have also included the top cities with the largest month on month increase in textile shipment tonnage and textile receipt tonnage, respectively. Among them, the top five cities with the largest month on month increase in textile receiving tonnage are Jinhua, Wuxi, Nanjing, Changzhou, and Suzhou, respectively belonging to Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, and Anhui Province. A detailed list of three shows the prosperity and development of the textile industry in the Yangtze River Delta.
In addition, data shows that among the cities with the largest year-on-year increase in received tons of textiles originating from Jiangsu, the top five are Suqian, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Anqing, and Nantong, all belonging to the Yangtze River Delta region. The received tons of textiles in Jinhua, Zhejiang and Anqing, Anhui increased by 69.9% and 73.7% year-on-year, respectively. In the top five cities where Jiangsu textiles mainly travel, Shaoxing and Jiaxing in Zhejiang province have even made it into the top three, closely following Suzhou, the first city in Jiangsu province.
The spring river water warms the duck prophet. When it comes to the past year, the biggest feeling for truck driver Zhu, who often travels to the Yangtze River Delta region, is that he is "too busy". "Starting from Jiangsu, there have been more orders to go to Anhui, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. We used to run far, but now we receive a lot of goods that transfer between these 'three provinces and one city'. A series of numbers confirm his feelings.". According to data from Manbang Freight, the average transportation distance of textiles shipped from "three provinces and one city" has decreased to varying degrees in the past year. The shorter journey not only reflects the convenience of transportation, but also to a certain extent reflects the density of textile production and sales points in the Yangtze River Delta region.
It is worth noting that in the data released by the platform, the top four "popular textile export routes" are "Wuxi Shaoxing", "Nantong Jiaxing", "Shaoxing Jinhua", and "Jiaxing Shaoxing", all of which travel between Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces; On the "platform textile receiving weight" ranking, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, Suzhou in Jiangsu, Jinhua in Zhejiang, Shanghai in Jiangsu, and Nantong in Jiangsu rank in the top five... The close industrial connections among the three provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta are highlighted through this series of rankings.
The Yangtze River Delta has gathered the headquarters of major private express delivery enterprises and the leaders of logistics enterprises. The express logistics industry is developed, coupled with the digital and intelligent advantages of regional development. Nowadays, textiles are running faster. In recent years, the logistics industry in Jiangsu Province, especially the development of smart logistics, has been at the forefront of the country. In 2019, it was successfully approved as a pilot province for comprehensive reform of logistics cost reduction and efficiency improvement with the theme of "smart logistics". Many enterprises, including Yunmanman, have also developed rapidly, firmly ranking first in the industry; In Zhejiang, a total of 10 national demonstration logistics parks and 20 provincial-level demonstration logistics parks (including national level) have been established, ranking first among all provinces and cities in China in terms of quantity. The Guiding Opinions of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government Office on Accelerating the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry also propose to create innovative scenarios, including smart logistics, in the future
Liu Jun, the General Manager of Nanjing Jiuxin Textile Technology Co., Ltd., has been a veteran in the textile industry for many years. Her years of work experience have made her deeply moved by the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. "As the middle reaches of the textile industry, there has been a significant increase in orders from Jiangsu and Anhui, and the volume of goods transported through freight platforms is also constantly increasing. It is now the beginning of the year, and the volume of goods is relatively large, requiring three to four trucks of goods to be shipped in a day." Policies and enterprises rely on each other, Let the development of "Liu Juns" become increasingly prosperous, and also let the textile industry in the Yangtze River Delta run against the trend and continue to be popular.