On March 30, the 9th Standing Council of the 11th China Sewing Machinery Association and the 17th Industry Backbone Enterprise Theme Summit were grandly held in Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
At this important meeting, the “Guiding Opinions on High-Quality Development of China’s Sewing Machinery Industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”) made a grand debut. Focusing on the industry’s high-quality development goals, a comprehensive and detailed layout was carried out from multiple dimensions, which injected strong impetus and pointed out a clear direction for the intelligent, green, and high-end development of China’s sewing machinery industry during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.
As a key component of the light manufacturing industry, the sewing machinery industry is the basic equipment to support digital and intelligent upgrades in downstream textile and clothing, automotive interiors, home furnishing and other fields.
During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the overall scale of the industry continued to expand, the number and quality of core technology patents increased significantly, the proportion of digital and intelligent equipment increased significantly, and the export scale share increased steadily, consolidating China’s position as a sewing machinery manufacturing power.
However, in the face of complex changes in the global economic situation, the deep integration of new generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, and the accelerated restructuring of downstream industries, the industry is standing at a crossroads of transformation.
The “Opinions” clearly put forward a core strategic shift: from leading in products and scale to a new stage of development of a strong country with leading engineering capabilities (basic theory), quality governance capabilities and system service capabilities as the core features.
The overall goal is to build a modern industry with innovation leadership, brand influence and green development demonstration capabilities.
Yang Xiaojing, chairman of the China Sewing Machinery Association, said that 2026 is the first year of my country’s “15th Five-Year Plan”. Key actions should be taken at the beginning, and the industry must seize the main direction of developing new productivity.
He emphasized that the next five years and even longer will be a period of strategic opportunities for industry development. Enterprises must strengthen their confidence and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the core through self-reliance, upgrading and leapfrogging.
The “Opinions” not only proposed a grand strategic direction, but also set “hard targets” for the high-quality development of the industry with a series of specific and quantitative goals.
In terms of economies of scale, the industry will strive to achieve an average annual growth rate of more than 5% in operating revenue and profits, an overall profit margin of more than 6%, and a global share of 30% – 40% of the global production and sales of multifunctional household machines, consolidating its position as the world’s largest industrial machine production and sales company.
In terms of innovation capabilities, the average R&D investment intensity of enterprises above designated size must reach 5%, and the investment intensity of leading enterprises must exceed 6%, aiming to build a world-leading industry scientific research and innovation system.
The goals for manufacturing capabilities and international competition are also clear: to build 5-10 intelligent manufacturing demonstration workshops for special parts, to build more than 10 automated and intelligent demonstration production lines, and to achieve a digital transformation penetration rate of 70% for key enterprises; to cultivate 3 to 5 internationally renowned enterprises with an output value of over 2 billion yuan, and strive to achieve the leading international level in physical quality of leading products, with the global mid-to-high-end market penetration reaching over 90%.
Structural adjustment and green development are also priorities.
The plan proposes to add 30 to 50 new individual champions, specialized and new small and medium-sized enterprises, with CNC equipment accounting for 100%, to reduce energy consumption per unit output value by 10% to 15%, and to build 5 to 7 national and provincial green factories.
In order to achieve the above goals, the “Opinions” deployed five major tasks: accelerating the integration of information technology, promoting structural optimization and upgrading, strengthening quality brand building, accelerating domestic and foreign market expansion, and strengthening talent team building, and targeted implementation of five projects including basic theory and shortcomings technology research project, technological transformation and improvement project, quality brand improvement project, enterprise overseas project, and talent construction plan project.
In his speech, Yang Xiaojing further refined the plan into specific implementation paths.
He proposed that the industry should “take multiple measures to strengthen internal strength and optimize layout”, use artificial intelligence to reconstruct the industrial structure and explore new tracks and new models.
It is necessary to cultivate endogenous power, adhere to specialization and new development, promote enterprises to open up new fields through digital technological transformation and equipment updating, and avoid homogeneity and involution.
Facing the complex external environment, Yang Xiaojing particularly emphasized “focusing on integration to expand markets and build new situations.”
He pointed out that although global trade frictions and supply chain restructuring bring challenges, there are opportunities amid crises.
On the one hand, the industry must deeply cultivate the domestic market and seize the dividends of the country’s policy to promote the update of industrial equipment; on the other hand, it must accelerate “deep cultivation overseas”, promote enterprises to shift from global sales to global operations, and actively expand emerging markets such as the “One Belt and One Road” and Central and South America.
At the same time, it is necessary to break through traditional application fields with an open vision and expand into new scenarios such as automotive interiors, medical health, and aerospace.
In Yang Xiaojing’s speech, “synergy” and “talent” were repeatedly emphasized, becoming the two key supports for the industry to move towards a global first-class camp.
He pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen collaboration among enterprises and create a new industrial ecology of “leading the big to lead the small and the small to support the big” through technical cooperation and resource sharing; at the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the collaboration between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and build a stable relationship of division of labor and collaboration.
With the gradual implementation of the “Opinions”, it is expected that by the end of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, the intelligence level of China’s sewing machinery industry will be greatly improved, the market share of high-end products will be significantly increased, and green manufacturing will become the mainstream development direction of the industry.
At the same time, the industry’s international competitiveness will be further enhanced and it will occupy a more prominent and important position in the global sewing machinery market.
