By+Wei+Wei

Overall， Chinas economic performance remains steady in the first half of this year， accelerating the speed of industrial structure adjustment as well as industrial transformation and upgrading. Since the development of industrial technology and the improvement of management efficiency， Chinas tech-textile industry still ran smoothly， production， fixed asset investment， and the economic benefit presented a certain growth， while the export growth maintained relatively steady.

According to the investigation of China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association （CNITA）， the tech-textile industrial condition index for the first quarter of 2015 was 69.7， which indicates that industrial entrepreneurs are satisfied with current operation situation in the new normal context. Industry main economic data are shown in table 1.

Industry production & investment

According to the National Bureau of Statistics， from January to June， the production of nonwovens industrial enterprises above a designated size reached 1.994 million tons， increased by 9.98% year-on-year， and the growth rate was 1.4 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year.

Shandong， Zhejiang， and Jiangsu are the largest nonwoven fabric production provinces in China， accounting for almost 50% of the total nonwoven fabric production， with the average growth rate over 11%. At the same time， the nonwoven fabric production of Henan， Jiangxi， and Hunan increased by 21.35%， 23.65%， and 15.74% respectively， the proportion of these three provinces increased almost 1 percentage point year-on-year. Hubei is the largest nonwoven fabric production province in the middle part of China， the growth rate declined from 27.22% to 7.37% yearon-year. However， the cord fabric production was 379，000 tons， down 7.38% from a year earlier.

In the first half of this year， the industrial completed investment in fixed assets realized 29.61 billion yuan， increased by 20.19% year-on-year. Meanwhile， the number of new projects reached 461， increased by 15.83% year-on-year， but the growth rate declined over 10 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2015.

In terms of different industrial fields， sail and canvas industrial investment increased by 80%， the project number rose 25.42%， while the new project number only grew 8.7%. The investments in filtration textiles， geotechnical textiles， and other techtextiles are very active and keep a rapid growth rate of 34.14%， the new project number increased by 57.3% year-on-year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics， from January to May， the main business income and profits of industrial enterprises above a designated size reached 111.04 billion yuan and 6.36 billion yuan， with an increase of 5.89% and 13.29% respectively. The industrial average rate of profit was 5.73%， 0.3 percentage point higher than that of same period last year. At the same time， the amount of loss was 282 million yuan， decreased by 10.64% year-on-year.

From different industrial divisions， nonwovens and rope & cords kept a high level of profitability. The main business income and profits of nonwovens industry grew 9.02% and 15.75% respectively， with the profit margin of 5.85%. The profit margin of rope & cords was 6.65%， up 0.8 percentage point year-on-year. In the meanwhile， the profit margin of filtration textiles， geotechnical textiles， and other tech-textiles also showed a small rebound with an increase of 0.6%.

Industrial product export & import Export

The tech-textile products in our country mainly meet the huge domestic market， while the global market has also triggered the development of Chinas tech-textile industry. According to the statistics of General Administration of Customs， from January to May， the export of all kinds of tech-textile products totalized $8.45 billion， nearly kept the same from a year earlier， only up 0.79% year-on-year.

The industrial plastic coated fabric， medical & hygiene textiles， sail-class products， nonwovens， and packing bags are the five main export products in Chinas tech-textile industry， accounting for 73.2% of the total export amount. Among the main export products medical & hygiene textiles and sail-class products maintain growth， the export amount reached $1.41 billion and $1.11 billion， increased by 7.77% and 4.48% respectively. However， the export amount of industrial plastic coated fabric， nonwovens， and packing bags saw a decrease in the first half of 2015， especially the export amount of nonwovens which dropped 4.51% year-on-year. Specific data are shown in table 2.

United States is Chinas largest export market. From January to May， Chinas tech-textile export to United States reached $1.44 billion， up 10.99% year-on-year； export to South Korea and United Kingdom kept the growth rate at 3.79% and 7.28% respectively. However， export to other countries and regions showed decline at varying degrees. For an instance， export to Japan was $0.54 billion， decreased by 6.84% year-on-year； and the growth rate of Indonesia and Russia decreased by 11.21% and 22.47% respectively.

In terms of the export districts， Asia is the largest area for Chinas tech-textile export， accounting for 44.1% of the total export amount. However， from January to May， the export to the non-ASEAN countries declined by 2.2%， basically due to the decrease in export to Japan， India and other Asian markets. At the same time， export to North America increased by nearly 10% year-onyear， while export to EU countries saw a decrease of 2.8%. Although Africa and Oceania are the new market of Chinas tech-textile products with a small proportion of only 6.5% and 2.3%， the growth rate was at 2.8% and 5.1% respectively. In addition， the market share of Latin America realized 6.6% with the growth rate of 6.8%. Details are shown in table 4.

Import

From January to May， Chinas import of all kinds of tech-textile products totalized $1.86 billion， increased by 6.4% year-on-year. Medical & hygiene textiles， industrial plastic coated fabric， nonwovens， glass fiber fabric， and rubber coated fabric are the five main imported products， accounting for 82.3% of the total import amount. Japan， Taiwan， South Korea， United States， and Germany are the main import countries and regions of Chinas tech-textile products， occupying 78.4% of the total.

Operation of some key tech-textile fields

Medical & hygiene textiles

Currently， the consumption of medical & hygiene textiles in China accounts for a large share， mainly due to improvement of urbanization level and the new consumption idea. In the meanwhile， Chinas medical & hygiene textile product occupies a large proportion in the global market as well.

From January to May， Chinas medical & hygiene textiles exports totalized $1.41 billion with a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. In this field， exports of nonwoven disposable protective clothing and disposable diapers & sanitary towels reached $444 million and $610 million respectively， increased by 12.33% and 11.95% year-on-year respectively. However， absorbent cotton， medical gauze & bandages saw a slight decrease by 3.22% year-on-year， details are shown in table 5.

Transportation textiles

In the first half of this year， Chinas automobile production reached 12.0950 million， sold out 11.8503 million， up 2.64% and 1.43% respectively， but 6.96 and 6.93 percentage points lower than that of the same period last year. Accordingly， the sales revenue growth of transportation textiles at round 5%.

In comparison with the rapid growth in the previous years， the development of Chinas automobile industry has relatively become steady， and many metropolises have taken measures for automobile purchasing. However， related textile enterprises will still face an optimistic future. Since lightweight， energy conservation and environmental sustainability has turned to be the new trend in Chinas automobile industry， this will definitely increase the using range of transportation textiles.

Geotechnical textiles

Chinas geotechnical textiles development is mainly depend on the investments in infrastructure construction. In the first half of this year， investment in fixed assets of highways and waterways totalized 718.8 billion yuan， increased by 9.5% year-on-year. From January to May， the railway infrastructure investment is 265.13 billion yuan， up 12.7% from a year earlier.

Under the current economic environment， landfill， tailings disposal， petroleum exploration， industrial impervious and ecological slope protection are the new application areas. In the meanwhile， the investment growth in the field of envi- ronmental engineering will slow down. However， the industry is expected to have an improvement along with the launch of some planned projects.

Filtration textiles

Since the implementation of “Air Pollutants Emission Standards for Cement Industry” on July 1st 2015， the PM emission has limited to 30 mg/ and 20 mg/. Accordingly a number of cement factories have to improve and upgrade their environmental protection facilities with about 10 billion yuan in order to comply with the new standards. This action will promote the industrial large-scale bag-type dust removal system， bringing an opportunity for the development of filtration textiles industry. Meanwhile， the development of largescale bag-type dust removal system also relies on thermal power industry and steel industry.

Full-year forecast of 2015

In China， tech-textile industry is closely related to the national economy and the peoples livelihood， it is also an important orientation of adjusting the textile industrial structure. In the new normal context， Chinas tech-textile industry is seeking for the sustainable development in terms of technology， talents， and brands， and this will enhance the industrial competitive advantages at home and abroad market to a large extent.

Generally speaking， Chinas tech-textile industry is mainly driven by the domestic market. With the acceleration of urbanization and the implementation of pump priming policy， China has increased investments in infrastructure construction， environmental governance， health care， and safeguarding etc.， which provide a wide domestic market space for the industrial development.

As for the overseas market， United States is Chinas largest export country for tech-textile products due to its good economy. In contrast， export to EU countries and Japan suffered a significant decline because of some uncertain factors. However， the demand growth in the emerging markets such as ASEAN countries and Africa is relatively steady.

In conclusion， the domestic market for techtextile industry continues to grow rapidly， while the overseas market will get a recovery in the second half of this year. The entire industry will maintain steady at a stable development stage， and continues to accelerate adjusting the industrial structure. It is expected that the total industrial output value， sales income， profits and other major economic indicators will maintain the growth rate of around 10%.