The opening ceremony of the China (Shaoxing) International Textile Expo.	Foreign traders at the expo.	Foreign businessmen at the expo.

THE China International Textile Expo (CITE), so-called barometer of the Chinese textile industry, has been held in Shaoxing County each October for the past seven years. This small county in eastern Zhejiang Province accounts for 20 percent of China’s textile production capacity, generating an annual output value of RMB 80 billion. Domestic and foreign traders come to Shaoxing each year to talk business, sign contracts and compare notes on the latest textile industry trends.

The Revitalized CITE

Shaoxing County’s basic and key industry, has experienced ups and downs in the past few years. County Magistrate Feng Jianrong recalls the year 2005, when EU import restrictions and Central Government macro-economic controls left the industry more or less out in the cold. As local textile companies also lagged behind in technology, design and development, Shaoxing's textile industry went into decline. The gravity of the situation prompted the county government to formulate a new development plan, whereby it would revamp the textile industry and upgrade others. It entailed reducing printing and dyeing manufacture output, controlling weaving and chemical textiles and increasing garments and home textile manufacture.

The CITE has played an important role in Shaoxing’s textile industry reforms. Exhibitors in the 2006 Expo, its theme, “creative, professional, international,” were selected strictly according to their potential for upgrading the Expo’s overall caliber. The CITE organizer has extended the exhibition areas devoted to home textiles and new products. Wei Zhonghua, president of the Shaoxing County Home Textile Association, explains that Shaoxing'stextile producers engage mainly in curtain and fabric exports, and are striving to seize a share of the world’s medium-priced markets. The association organized its members to participate in the 2006 Expo with the aim of establishing the Shaoxing Home Textile brand and promoting self regulation of the industry and exchanges within it.

As, from the industry chain perspective, home textiles and garments mean high added value, the 2007 Expo includes a series of large-scale activities focusing on these two key fields. They include a Clothing Fabric Exhibition and the First China Light and Textile Industrial City’s Clothing Fabric Awards, sponsored by the Chinese Textile Information Center, the Second China Media Awards for Apparel Textiles and the Development Forum for Textile and Garment Brands.

An Open Arena

The CITE 2007 opens at the China Light and Textile Industrial City of Keqiao in Shaoxing County on October 21 and closes on October 24. The theme of the eighth expo is “novelty, quality and green.”

The main exhibition area comprises 1,200 stands divided into five areas of textile machinery, raw materials, fabrics, home textiles, and accessories,covering an area of 24,000 sq m. The Expo 2007 is expected to welcome 80,000 exhibitors and 30,000 purchasing agents, 10,000 of whom are from overseas. Local companies account for no more than 50 percent of exhibitors; the balance comprises other domestic manufacturers and overseas companies, according to the list of participants.

Manufacturers of machinery are particularly keen participants of the CITE, as it offers an excellent presentation venue. Shaoxing’s prospering curtain and fabric industry demands a machine that is capable of various modes of embroidery. Companies from Guangdong, as well as Jiangsu, provinces consequently dominate the embroidery machine hall. The Zhanyi Computerized Machinery Company of Guangdong made huge sales at the CITE 2006, purely by virtue of being the only outfit displaying this particular model, according to the Zhanyi agent. The great business opportunities offered by the CITE have drawn many other big brands to this year’s expo.

The four-day CITE 2007 is expected to generate a RMB 2.751 billion turnover -- 63.9 percent higher than the CITE 2006 - RMB 702 million of which will be in exports. This represents a whopping 168 percent rise on 2006. Thirty cooperation projects, 12 of them foreign invested, representing a total investment of RMB 3.5 billion, are projected. One Korean exhibitor speaks for himself and his fellow traders in expressing trust in Shaoxing’s consistent quality control and production capacity. He believes that, in view of the ROK’s development and design advantages regarding high-tech sports and functional fabrics, ROK and Shaoxing companies should step up their cooperation and exchanges. The time indeed seems ripe for ROK investment in Shaoxing with a view to cooperating with local companies.

During the last seven years, the CITE has grown from a local, little-known fair to a large-scale exhibition that makes appreciable impact on the overseas market. It is the global vision and professional skill of Shaoxing’s industry administrators and workers that have forged the outstanding Shaoxing Textile brand.