uture Outlook of Knitting Mills: Marching Towards High-Quality Development Amid Technological Innovation and Ecological Restructuring
Driven by the global consumption upgrade, industrial policy guidance, and the wave of technological revolution, knitting mills are moving away from the traditional scale expansion model and entering a new transformation phase centered on "high-endization, intelligence, greenization, and scenario-based development". Relying on material innovation, digital empowerment, and market restructuring, the industry will break the label of "low-end manufacturing" and build a more resilient, efficient, and valuable modern industrial ecosystem. The market scale and quality benefits are expected to achieve a dual leap in the next five years.
I. Intelligent Transformation: An Efficiency Revolution from "Manufacturing" to "Intelligent Manufacturing"
Intelligence has become the core path for knitting mills to break through production capacity bottlenecks and improve response speed, with the full-process digital transformation accelerating. In the future, technologies such as intelligent
circular knitting machines and digital twin factories will be fully popularized, and the penetration rate of intelligent manufacturing equipment in the industry is expected to exceed 70% by 2030. By connecting the entire production chain through IoT modules, real-time control such as dynamic adjustment of yarn tension and intelligent adaptation of cylinder speed is realized, reducing the fabric defect rate by more than 30% and increasing the average daily production capacity of a single factory to over 500,000 pieces.
The in-depth integration of AI and industrial internet will reshape the production logic. Leading enterprises have reduced the order delivery cycle from the traditional 25 days to 7-15 days through digital scheduling systems, and the response efficiency of small-batch customized orders has increased by more than 60%. Meanwhile, intelligent quality inspection equipment achieves millimeter-level defect recognition relying on machine vision technology, replacing more than 80% of manual inspection work, which not only reduces labor costs but also ensures product consistency. Small and medium-sized knitting mills will access third-party industrial internet platforms to share computing power and data resources, realizing the inclusive transformation of "small factories can also engage in intelligent production".
II. Green Upgrade: Low-Carbon Circularity as the Bottom Line for Survival
Against the backdrop of global "dual carbon" goals and stricter environmental policies, green transformation has changed from a "bonus item" to a "must-answer question". Knitting mills will fully promote the whole-chain low-carbon transformation: by 2030, the energy consumption per unit of industrial added value will decrease by more than 20% compared with 2020, and the carbon emission intensity per unit of product will drop by another 30%. On the material side, environmentally friendly raw materials such as recycled polyester and bio-based fibers will be prioritized, with their proportion expected to rise from 25% in 2025 to over 40%. New materials such as degradable corn fiber and regenerated cellulose fiber will be widely used in underwear, sportswear and other categories.
Production processes will iterate towards cleaner methods. Waterless dyeing, supercritical CO₂ dyeing and other technologies will gradually replace traditional high-water-consumption processes, achieving a water-saving rate of over 90% and reducing wastewater treatment costs by 40%. The circular economy model will accelerate its implementation: through chemical recycling technology, the recycling rate of waste textiles will be increased to 45%, and waste scraps such as discarded cylinders and yarns will be recycled back to the production link after resource treatment. Meanwhile, the construction of ESG systems has become the core competitiveness of enterprises. By obtaining international certifications such as EU CE and carbon footprint certification, enterprises can break through European and American green trade barriers and seize access to high-end markets.
III. Product High-Endization: Structural Upgrade from "Basic Models" to "High-Value Products"
The upgrading of consumer demand and the expansion of segmented scenarios have driven the transformation of knitting products from homogeneous mass products to high-value-added and functional products. Functional knitted garments have become the main growth driver, with the demand for products such as antibacterial, moisture-wicking, and intelligent temperature control growing at an average annual rate of over 7%. The gross profit margin of high-end categories such as graphene heated underwear and lightweight elastic technical sportswear can reach more than 50%. At the same time, product demand shows a "polarization" characteristic: on the one hand, high-end customization and designer co-branded products meet the demand for quality consumption; on the other hand, cost-effective basic models maintain market share through large-scale production and lean management.
Industrial knitted products have become a new growth pole, with their applications in automotive interiors, medical dressings, geotextiles and other fields expanding rapidly. The compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 9.2% from 2026 to 2030. For example, the demand for knitted automotive interiors has surged due to their lightweight and environmental protection properties, and medical antibacterial knitted dressings have continued to expand under the aging trend. These segmented tracks have opened up incremental space for knitting mills. In addition, intelligent wearable knitted products are accelerating commercialization. Products such as health monitoring underwear embedded with flexible sensors and temperature-controlled scarves have realized the scenario extension of "wearing as a service".
IV. Market and Supply Chain: Global Layout and Local Synergy
The restructuring of the global supply chain has promoted knitting mills to form a layout pattern of "domestic and international dual circulation". In the domestic market, the proportion of online channels continues to rise, and live e-commerce and DTC models have become key paths for brands to reach consumers. The 18-30-year-old young group spends an average of 1,280 yuan on knitted clothing per year, becoming the main consumer force. Meanwhile, intelligent knitting industrial parks in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have formed a collaborative pattern of "eastern innovation + central and western undertaking" with green production bases in the central and western regions, optimizing the distribution of production capacity.
The international market is driven by the "dual engines" of local production and cross-border e-commerce. Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh undertake the transfer of low-to-medium-end production capacity, while Chinese knitting mills focus on high-end manufacturing and brand output, expanding emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East through overseas mergers and acquisitions and local operations. The entry into force of RCEP and the deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative have created opportunities for exports. The demand for small-batch quick response in cross-border e-commerce channels has increased by 41% year-on-year, forcing enterprises to build flexible supply chains to meet the demand for fragmented orders. The industrial chain synergy will be further deepened: upstream material enterprises and downstream brands will conduct joint R&D to form a closed-loop ecosystem of "raw material innovation - intelligent manufacturing - scenario application", enhancing overall competitiveness.
V. Challenges and Solutions: Survival and Development Paths for Small and Medium-Sized Mills
The competition in the knitting industry will intensify in the future, and small and medium-sized mills will face multiple challenges such as environmental compliance pressure, technology iteration costs, and supply chain fluctuations. In response, small and medium-sized enterprises need to adopt the strategy of "deeply cultivating segmented markets + differentiated competition", focusing on a vertical field (such as maternal and infant knitted products, elderly comfortable clothing) to form professional advantages, or docking the demand of emerging e-commerce channels through the "small-batch quick response" model. Meanwhile, relying on the advantages of industrial clusters, they can share public resources such as environmental protection equipment and testing centers to reduce transformation costs.
Leading enterprises will build barriers through technological R&D, brand building and global layout, increase investment in cutting-edge technologies such as AI knitting and new materials, and cultivate local brands with international influence. At the policy level, measures such as special fund support, equipment subsidies, and tax reductions will continue to empower the industry, promoting the collaborative research of "bottleneck" technologies by industry, universities and research institutes, and helping the overall upgrading of the industry.
Looking forward to the future, the development prospect of knitting mills is no longer limited to production capacity scale, but depends on technological innovation capabilities, the depth of green transformation, and market response speed. Enterprises that can accurately grasp consumption trends, actively embrace technological changes, and adhere to the concept of sustainable development will stand out in the industry restructuring, promoting China's knitting industry to leap from a "global factory" to a "global intelligent manufacturing center" and injecting Chinese power into the high-quality development of the global textile industry.
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