Interview with Mr Zhu Minru

Mr Zhu Minru
Chairman
China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA)

Registered and grant confirmed by Ministry of Civil Affairs, CNITA - China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association, is the only national association dedicated to nonwovens and industrial textiles industry of the country. It acts as an intermediary institute and is constituted by the enterprises and other entities of the industry. Carrying out the relevant laws, regulations, and policies to maintain the interest of the industry as well as the legal right of the members, the organization acts as a conduits for the government, enterprises and markets to promot technological progress, improve enterprises’ management and enhance healthy development of nonwovens and industrial textile industry within China. Mr Zhu Minru was elected as Chairman, CNITA in 1998, when China Textile Administration was renamed China Textile Association. Mr Minru is also the Director of China Textile Engineering Academy Industrial Textiles Committee. Post completion of studies from Tianjin Textile Engineering College, he was Department Chief of China Textile Administration Science & Technology Division, then. Face2Face met up with Mr Zhu Minru to seek his opinion about non-wovens & industrial textiles industry of China and the functions of CNITA which dynamically contributes towards the sector’s growth.

What has been the role of CNITA in promoting the non-woven and industrial textiles industry of China?

Since its existence, CNITA has been playing crucial role as an important organ of the Chinese Government. It has brought in reforms particularly in science & technology innovation, projects advancing, awarding, information issuing, standards building and international exchange of technical know-how.

On the last point however, CNITA believes at developing cooperation on international front. CNITA expects to build more opportunities to communicate and cooperate with the people from industrial textiles sector.

CNITA is always proactive;

to work as a bridge between the Government and Enterprises, and to protect interests of its members while adhering to the laws and regulations;

to conduct research on the basic information of this industry and propose development blueprint to promote technology;

to organize the internal information and communication, technique, training and provide consultation service for this trade;

to set up business relations among the enterprises and inter-trades on production, operation, price, quality and so on, and protect fair trade and competition;

to work out industrial standard and supervise product quality;

to promote cooperation between enterprises and clients, both at home and abroad;

to hold China International Nonwovens, Techtextiles Exhibition and Conference;

to edit 'Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Newsletter' and cooperate with other organizations to publish 'Technical Textiles' and 'Nowovens' magazines.

We have learnt that China's output of non-woven industry enjoyed annual growth rate of 12 percent over the past five years. How is the industry shaping up, so far?

Main market of China's nonwovens industry is still within its domestic terrain. Exports in this sector is marginal, just about 10 percent. However, the high speed of China's economic development provides a large space for non-woven industry.

Can you explain the breakup of various non-woven sectors of China in terms of Spun Bonding, Spunlace, Melt Blowing, Needle Punching, Thermal Bonding, Chemical Bonding and Airlaid Pulp?

Production of China Nonwoven Textiles in 2006 reached 1,396,600 tons, recording a 18.66 percent rise above 1,177,000 tons achieved in 2005. The sector wise output in 2006 can be read as below;

Output of Nonwoven Textiles in 2006

Nonwoven Item	Total Production	Spunbond	Hydro- entangled	Meltblown	Needle punch
2006(ton)	1,396,600	533,100	87,900	21,600	343,000
2005(ton)	1,177,000	429,500	75,000	19,100	275,000
Increasing Ratio of 2006 Vs.2005 %	18.66	24.12	17.20	13.09	24.73
Percent in Nonwoven %	100	38.2	6.3	1.5	24.6

Nonwoven Item	Total Production	Chemical bond	Thermal bond	Air laid	Wet
2006(ton)	1,396,600	185,000	149,000	62,000	15,000
2005(ton)	1,177,000	169,400	146,400	50,100	13,000
Increasing Ratio of 2006 Vs.2005 %	18.66	9.21	1.78	23.75	15.38
Percent in Nonwoven %	100	13.2	10.7	4.4	1.1

Why are China made nonwovens less expensive?

Nonwovens made in China are comparatively low in cost than others because of easy access and adequate availability of raw materials, necessary equipment and other related factors.

With further growth in technology and application of high performance materials in the offing, the price of products made in China will obviously increase. Therefore, low cost output in both these perspectives would no longer be synonymous with product from China, in the future.

Is there any provision for antidumping duty on imported technical textile products to protect and encourage domestic markets?

The requirement of technical textile is increasing quickly in domestic market, so some international companies are also interested, and are paying more attention in this market.

CNITA and some related national departments of China also pay attention to products' rendition that might be harmful to our market and enterprises. Moreover, we work within the ambit of international rules and regulations to ensure that there is no deviation from our aim to develop and promote the industry in China.

What is the level of indigenous and foreign technology absorbed by your industries today?

China relies on import for the high performance raw fiber materials. When compared technologically with equivalent products from overseas, yet more can be achieved in terms of performance, control and quality.

What future goals have been set up by the Chinese Government for textiles, particularly for technical textiles?

Chinese Government is working on the development based on scientific, sustainable, environment friendly, energy saving technology that lowers consumption and causes negligible pollution. Our Government is broadly committed towards improving and increasing product performance and generating value adds within the next two decades.

Published on: 13/08/2007

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.

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