County-Level Economy with a New Look | Xiantao: “Exquisitely Weaving” a Piece of Fabric with the Goal of Exceeding “100 Billion”

Xiantao is the largest production, processing and export base of non-woven fabrics in China. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiantao aims to build its non-woven fabric industry into a 100-billion-yuan industry. But how to achieve this goal? Let's take a look at the report.

In the laboratory of Hubei Tuoying New Material Co., Ltd., laboratory technicians are busy testing fabrics. These fabrics are jointly developed by the company with Wuhan Textile University, Donghua University and other institutions of higher learning. It is the world's lightest protective clothing fabric, breaking the monopoly of European and American companies.

Zhu Zhimin, Technical Director of Hubei Tuoying New Material Co., Ltd., said, "This fabric has been placed here for at least two hours, and water can't penetrate it. The new fabric is the same. Its protective performance is not affected. It makes medical staff feel more comfortable while still protecting them."

As a local enterprise in Xiantao, Tuoying Company is mainly engaged in the production of raw materials for non-woven fabric products such as medical protective clothing and isolation gowns. To capture a larger market, Tuoying has set its sights on high-end raw materials for medical protective clothing. The company has invested 500 million yuan to expand and upgrade its facilities and built a new purification workshop specifically for the research and development of new materials.

Chen Zhengqiang, Deputy General Manager of Hubei Tuoying New Material Co., Ltd., said, "Only by constantly updating can we go further. More than 10 new products have been developed this year, and 2 are currently ready for mass production. Upgrading and replacement may increase the company's output value by at least 20% to 25%. The total output value this year is expected to be no less than 700 million yuan."

The transformation model of joining hands with university teams and increasing investment in technological transformation to drive industrial upgrading with scientific and technological innovation, like what Tuoying has done, is also the development concept for Xiantao's non-woven fabric industry to sprint towards a 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster. This year, Xiantao has introduced several policies to support the high-quality development of enterprise technological transformation, increasing the municipal special funds for technological transformation from 20 million yuan per year to 30 million yuan, of which 10 million yuan is specifically used for rewards and subsidies for non-woven fabric enterprises. Of Tuoying's more than 60 million yuan of research and development expenses last year, more than 10 million yuan came from national and local technological transformation rewards and subsidies.

Li Dewu, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Xiantao Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said, "For industrial technological transformation projects with equipment purchases of more than 3 million yuan, we determine the support objects through a city-wide competitive selection method and adopt a stepped subsidy method. At the same time, we implement an agency service system for enterprise technological transformation projects."

The 9th Plenary Session of the 9th Xiantao Municipal Committee held last week also set development goals. By 2025, the non-woven fabric industry will lead a 100-billion-yuan industrial cluster and move into the top 50 of the national county-level economy.