"One City, One Exhibition, One Chain" Weaves a "New" Garment for Transformation

2026-03-24 15:20:12

From a drop of crude oil to a thread, and then to a piece of ready-to-wear clothing, how far is the spatial distance along this complete industrial chain? In Shantou, the answer is: within 50 kilometers. This is not only a vivid example of Shantou's empowerment through building industrial clusters but also the core competitiveness of Shantou's textile and apparel industry in its high-quality development. In recent years, Shantou has adhered to taking the real economy as the foundation, prioritizing manufacturing, and upholding the strategy of "building the city through industry and strengthening the city with industries". It has promoted industry through trade, boosted trade through industry, and developed both industry and commerce in parallel. Relying on the industrial layout of "one city, one exhibition, one chain" (one city refers to Shantou International Textile City, one exhibition refers to Chaoshan International Textile and Apparel Expo, and one chain refers to the complete industrial chain), Shantou has driven the textile and apparel industry to achieve a magnificent transformation from scale expansion to quality and efficiency improvement, from a complete industrial chain to value chain upgrading, and from traditional manufacturing to new-quality empowerment. Recently, reporters went to the site of the 5th Chaoshan International Textile and Apparel Expo, visited enterprise production workshops and the International Textile City, and conducted on-the-spot investigations to explore the vitality code behind Shantou's promotion of the textile and apparel industry towards new development and quality improvement.

One Exhibition: Witnessing the Industry's Leap to New Heights

From March 18th to 20th, the 5th Chaoshan Apparel Expo with the theme of "All Continents Sharing the Tide" was held in Shantou. After five years of hard work, fruitful results have been achieved: the exhibition scale has upgraded from 30,000 square meters in the first session to 150,000 square meters in this session; the participating entities have expanded from local enterprises to covering merchants in surrounding areas, and this session has gathered more than 1,200 exhibitors, 21 industrial clusters, and over 140,000 professional buyers from all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the country, as well as more than 40 countries and regions including the United States and Canada... The growth in these sets of figures not only witnesses the five-year growth trajectory of the Chaoshan Apparel Expo but also is a vivid epitome of China's textile and apparel industry moving towards "value leap".

On the opening day of this expo, more than 50 domestic and foreign purchasers reached initial procurement cooperation intentions with multiple enterprises in the industrial clusters. Charoen Pokphand Group, with overseas Chinese business background, connected with 17 enterprises and placed orders on the same day.

It is worth noting that on the basis of stabilizing traditional advantageous categories such as Underwear, home wear, and thermal clothing, this expo focused on introducing innovative categories such as sportswear, yoga wear, sun-protective clothing, and swimwear, and simultaneously covered upstream and downstream supporting products such as yarns, production equipment, and fabrics and accessories, realizing full coverage of the vertical industrial chain from yarns, fabrics and accessories to ready-to-wear, accurately matching the diversified and personalized market demands. The improved industrial ecological layout has injected strong impetus into the high-quality development of the industry.

Guangdong Alice Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the enterprises targeting the outdoor light sports track. This is its fourth time participating in the Chaoshan Apparel Expo, and its displayed seamless outdoor light sports series, such as Shapewear and vests, have been widely favored by purchasers.

"With independently developed seamless and bonding technology, we have realized the integration of technology and fashion, making the clothes both good-looking and comfortable to wear," said Chen Xin, the R&D director of the company. To meet the diverse needs of the global market, the company has built a global operation system of "Foshan R&D + Shantou Intelligent Manufacturing + Hong Kong Trade + British Design", forming a full-chain service capability from 3D modeling to flexible production. "In the future, we will continue to increase investment in product research and development, and combine AI tools to design products according to application scenarios, committed to intensive cultivation in segmented fields."

With the development and growth of the Chaoshan Apparel Expo, the diversified development path of Shantou's textile and apparel enterprises has become increasingly broader. "In the past, most of our overseas customers were from the Middle East and Arab countries, and our products were mainly robes. Now, there are more and more customers from Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, and our products have also expanded to fashionable Blouses, thermal underwear, home wear, etc.," said Huang Hailin, the sales director of Guangdong Fuxinna Industrial Development Co., Ltd.

Huang Hailin still vividly remembers the scene of the company's first participation in the Chaoshan Apparel Expo: "At the 2nd Chaoshan Apparel Expo, we successfully connected with cooperative customers of our own brand in many provinces across the country, and even found more than a dozen cooperative customers in some provinces. This was a precious gain for us, further expanding the sales channels of the brand in the domestic market."

With more channels and a broader market scope, enterprises' production momentum has become stronger and stronger. "Every quarter, we will jointly develop nearly 20 new types of structural fabrics with multiple core fabric suppliers, empowering the upgrading of nearly 100 basic products," Huang Hailin also shared a set of data, which is a report card of the enterprise's continuous development towards excellence: the output in 2025 exceeded 16 million pieces, the cumulative total production exceeded 220 million pieces, and it has established core strategic cooperative relations with more than 100 leading underwear brands across the country.

It is worth mentioning that at this Chaoshan Apparel Expo, a number of technological fabric enterprises gathered to collectively display cutting-edge industry achievements, leading the industry towards new and green development. Among them, Sateri, the "hidden champion" in the global cellulose fiber field, showcased Lyocell and the latest Yunmu fiber technology fibers; Xinxiang Chemical Fiber displayed juncao biomass fiber, which is highly antibacterial and biodegradable, setting a benchmark for the green transformation of the textile industry; Wuxi Simian displayed high-performance yarns and Shengyi Industry displayed innovative ribbons, reflecting the perfect integration of product functionality and comfort, leading the industry's green and functional development trend.

One City and One Chain: Intelligent Transformation of Traditional Industries

The innovative upgrading of the expo has simultaneously promoted the continuous improvement of industrial development levels. "Since the release of the 'Four Major Projects' for the textile and apparel industry at the first Apparel Expo in 2022, their full completion last year, and the subsequent promotion of the 'New Four Major Projects', we have always adhered to 'drawing a blueprint to the end'," said Wen Zhanbin, Secretary of the Shantou Municipal Party Committee. His firm words are an epitome of Shantou's solid promotion of the high-quality development of the textile industry step by step.

On the eve of the opening of this Chaoshan Apparel Expo,李振凡 (Li Zhenfan), Fiji's Ambassador to China, visited Shantou International Textile and Apparel City and witnessed the vibrant economic development picture here with a high degree of industrial agglomeration, a rich variety of products, and complete supporting facilities. "A complete integrated industrial chain has been formed in Shantou, from fabric supply, design and R&D to production and manufacturing, and brand sales, demonstrating Shantou's solid industrial foundation and strong manufacturing strength, and fully reflecting the core competitiveness of Shantou's textile and apparel industry."

Reporters learned that the "Four Major Projects" are the Global Textile Purchasing Center, the Intelligent Textile Industry Park, the Exhibition Center, and the Industrial Headquarters Building; the "New Four Major Projects" focus on four core directions: the New-Quality Fabric Manufacturing Base, the International Textile Digital Trade Base, the Intelligent Cloud Warehouse Center, and the Talent Integration and Innovation Center, promoting the industry to move towards a new journey of high-end, intelligent, and green upgrading.

As the industrial hub of the "Four Major Projects", after the first phase of Shantou International Textile City was delivered, more than 1,000 upstream and downstream enterprises have settled in, all shops have opened, and factories have been put into production one after another. Here, the Global Underwear Trading Center will officially open in August this year, aiming to become the largest underwear trading market in the country in terms of trading volume.

"On March 19, 2025, the China Knitted Fabric Market (North District) of Shantou International Textile City opened. Its pioneering 'front store and back factory + vertical integration' model has realized one-sTop coverage of all channels for finished product display, finished product sales, and procurement and wholesale, providing great convenience for consumers and purchasers," said Guo Yongbiao, General Manager of the Global Underwear Trading Market of Shantou International Textile City. In recent years, with the linkage with the Chaoshan Apparel Expo, great changes have taken place in Shantou's textile industry. The successive implementation of subsequent projects in the future will promote the textile industry to achieve higher-quality development.

As one of the first enterprises to settle in Shantou International Textile City, Guangdong Bailian Underwear Co., Ltd. has been accelerating its intelligent development.

Walking into Bailian's first conventional underwear dust-free and sterilized workshop in the world, reporters saw a busy yet orderly scene in spring: material box robots and latent automatic guided vehicles shuttled orderly in the workshop; materials were accurately connected to each workstation through the "air transmission" system; workers sat at their workstations, skillfully operating machines while quickly manually locking edges, and the digital screens above them recorded their output and efficiency in real-time.

"Our factory has realized full digital management from orders to procurement and then to production," introduced Guo Yingyan, the factory director of Bailian's underwear super factory. Since the introduction of intelligent manufacturing equipment in September last year, the production efficiency of the factory has increased by 25% to 30%, with an annual output of over 100 million pieces.

Walking into the new workshop of Shantou Youyi Technology Co., Ltd., a global high-end automatic cutting machine placed in the middle is particularly eye-catching. "This equipment is expected to be put into use in May this year, which will realize precise tailoring and splicing of underwear, better meet the diversified consumer demands of the global market, and at the same time reduce fabric costs by 3% to 5%," said Weng Kaibing, Chairman of Shantou Youyi Technology Co., Ltd. In his view, intelligence is a booster for the industry to achieve high-quality development. As an intelligent underwear company integrating R&D and design, production, and sales, it will keep up with the market development trend, continuously improve its intelligence and modernization level, and inject new impetus into the high-quality development of Shantou's textile and apparel industry.

A series of extended exhibits at the expo have also become the goals of Shantou's industrial chain extension and supplement. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of the application of nylon filaments, the demand for nylon filaments in the Chaoshan area has increased. Shantou's textile and apparel industry has targeted market opportunities and continuously extended the industrial chain upstream. At present, the number of nylon enterprises in production and under construction has increased from 1 to 6, and the annual nylon production capacity has gradually increased from the original 17,000 tons to 472,000 tons. At the beginning of this year, 3 nylon enterprises settled in Shantou International Textile City. Among them, the first phase of the nylon project started by Shantou Chaoyang District Yiweitai Industrial Co., Ltd. in January plans to invest 500 million yuan, with a production capacity of 50,000 tons. After the 3 nylon enterprises are put into production one after another, Shantou has taken another step towards the goal of a one-million-ton nylon base.

With more and more enterprises in the industrial chain settling in and putting into production, Shantou International Textile City is accelerating the formation of industrial agglomeration effects and efficient collaboration between upstream and downstream, further consolidating the foundation of industrial development, improving the full-chain supporting support, and enhancing the comprehensive industrial competitiveness.

Looking forward to the future, Wen Zhanbin said that this 5,000-mu industrial new city will be expanded to 10,000 mu, with supporting living services such as catering, housing, and business, as well as urban functions such as education, medical care, culture, and sports, to build a modern industrial community integrating "industry, city, people, and culture".

Towards the Future: With Science and Technology as the Core and Opening-up as the Wing

The textile and apparel industry is an important pillar industry of China's national economy, a basic industry for people's livelihood security, and a classic industry with global competitive advantages. As China's largest underwear production base, Shantou's output of underwear and home wear accounts for 45% of the country's total, and famous-brand products account for more than 75% of the country's total. How to promote the upgrading of the textile and apparel industry and the "simultaneous take-off" of urban development in the future, Shantou's development path has become increasingly clear.

"This year is the first year of the '14th Five-Year Plan'. The '14th Five-Year Plan' has made arrangements for consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy and promoting the quality improvement and upgrading of key industries. Traditional industries such as textile and apparel are at the right time for iterative upgrading, with broad prospects for climbing to new heights," Wen Zhanbin said. Shantou will further strengthen the International Textile City, run the Chaoshan Apparel Expo well, consolidate the complete industrial chain, build a modern textile and apparel industrial cluster, and strive to create a new situation in optimizing and upgrading traditional industries.

Xia Lingmin, Secretary-General of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, said that as a century-old commercial port and a special economic zone, Shantou has a profound foundation, a complete chain, and abundant vitality in the textile and apparel industry. It has formed a贴身服饰 (personal clothing) industrial cluster with an output value exceeding 100 billion yuan, full-chain supporting, and global leadership, which is an important sector with distinctive characteristics and strength in China's textile and apparel landscape.

Xia Lingmin said that looking forward to the "14th Five-Year Plan", China's textile industry is in a critical period of comprehensively building a modern industrial system. The whole industry will closely focus on the high-quality development requirements of "technology, fashion, green, and health", with intelligence, greenization, branding, and integration as the main directions, promote the industry to achieve effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity, and meet people's yearning for a better life at a higher level.

Regarding the high-quality development of Shantou's textile and apparel industry, Xia Lingmin also put forward expectations: Adhere to science and technology as the core and forge new productive forces. Accelerate the pace of intelligent, digital, and green transformation, strengthen the innovative application of new materials, new processes, and new equipment, promote Shantou's textile and apparel industry to leap from a "complete industrial chain" to an "efficient innovation chain", and accelerate the building of a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster.

Adhere to fashion as the soul and enhance brand discourse power. In-depth explore the contemporary value of Chaoshan culture, Chaoshan embroidery intangible cultural heritage, and Oriental aesthetics, promote cultural empowerment of fashion and design to enhance value, cultivate masters, famous brands, and major events, so that "Shantou Weaving" and "Chinese Underwear and Home Wear" can become distinctive symbols in the global fashion landscape.

Adhere to green as the foundation and practice sustainable development. Firmly follow the path of low-carbon circular and green manufacturing, promote carbon reduction and pollution control throughout the life cycle, transform ecological advantages into industrial competitiveness, and achieve the coordination and unification of economic, social, and ecological benefits.

Adhere to opening-up as the wing and connect to new global spaces. Relying on the advantages of overseas Chinese hometowns and the special economic zone platform, stabilize foreign trade, expand markets, strengthen cooperation, vigorously develop new business forms such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement, build a more diversified, stable, and efficient global supply chain and market network, and continuously enhance the position of Chinese textile and apparel in the global division of labor system.

Spring tides are surging, and thousands of sails are competing; striving to row the oars and set sail in a new era. With the implementation of a series of cooperation projects, the sonorous sound of Shantou's textile and apparel industry growing stronger is becoming more and more响亮. On the journey of building a special economic zone in the new era, Shantou is striving to write an era report on the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, with industrial layout as the pen and "building a modern industrial system with both industry and commerce" as the ink.

Source: International Business Daily