Antai Textile: 32 Years of Craftsmanship Weave a Differentiated Yarn Track, July Index Surges 2.96% to Lead the Market

In Zhangjiagang in July, the summer heat is intensifying, but the production workshop of Antai Textile is even hotter than the weather—neatly stacked colored acrylic tops are being transported to the packing area via automated conveyors. These yarns dyed in Morandi colors will appear on the autumn new product samples of a leading clothing brand in the Yangtze River Delta in a week. Li Xiong, the marketing manager, stood in front of the large screen in the central control room, his finger tracing the real-time updated textile manufacturing index curve, a smile lifting the corner of his mouth: "This wave of index rose 2.96% in July, outperforming the broader market by 1.87 percentage points. It seems that the 'differentiated yarn' track we bet on has stepped on the market's rhythm."

As an established textile enterprise rooted in Zhangjiagang since 1993, Antai Textile has focused on one thing for 32 years: to perfect acrylic yarns. From the initial conventional acrylic yarns to today's full product matrix covering acrylic tops, colored acrylic tops, and fancy yarns, this enterprise has always been able to capture opportunities from industry fluctuations. Just like this time, Li Xiong noticed two key signals from the industry report last week: first, the national cotton sales rate has reached 94.4%, an increase of 8.9 percentage points year-on-year, and downstream clothing enterprises are highly motivated to stock up; second, the Shandong Haijiang acrylonitrile plant underwent temporary maintenance on July 7, and Lihuayi's quotation was reduced by 50 yuan/ton to 7,900 yuan/ton. As the core raw material for acrylic, the loosening of acrylonitrile prices means there is room for maneuver on the cost side.

"With raw material prices falling and demand picking up, this is the perfect time for us to launch new products," Li Xiong immediately called Factory Director Huang of the production department. On the other end of the phone, Director Huang had just returned from a workshop inspection, with a little cotton wool still stuck to his safety helmet: "Don't worry, the high-equipped cotton top machine in Workshop 3 completed digital transformation last month. Now changing color numbers is as fast as changing TV channels. The 'Cloudy Blue' colored acrylic tops you mentioned—2 tons of trial samples produced yesterday have been sent out, and the customer feedback is that 'the color uniformity has improved another level compared to last time'."

Colored acrylic tops are Antai Textile's "star product". Traditional yarns often need to be spun first and then dyed, which not only consumes a lot of water and electricity but also tends to have color fastness issues. However, through independently developed "dope dyeing" technology, Antai mixes color masterbatches evenly into acrylic raw materials during the spinning stage. The produced colored acrylic tops can be used directly upon unpacking, reducing water consumption by 30% and carbon emissions by 25% per ton. "Now brands are talking about sustainable fashion, and our colored yarns just meet their environmental needs," Li Xiong flipped through the customer ledger. "We received 5 new customers in June alone, all attracted by this technology."

What makes customers even more excited than environmental protection is Antai's "creative ideas" in fancy yarns. Walking into the sample room, there are dozens of different types of yarns on display: some are bumpy like bamboo joints, some have the fluffiness of looped pile, and others are wrapped with ultra-fine spandex threads, which can pop up natural wrinkles when stretched. "This is the 'imitation velvet flower yarn' customized for a Hanfu brand. It uses three strands of acrylic threads with different twists plied together, resulting in a three-dimensional embossed effect when woven," Li Xiong picked up a roll of off-white yarn. "Last week, the USDA report said that the cotton boll setting rate is lower than the five-year average, and the supply of natural fibers is tight. Our acrylic fancy yarns can just serve as a supplement to help customers achieve richer textures."

The ability to quickly respond to these personalized needs is backed by Antai's continuous investment in production. Director Huang took the reporter into the workshop and pointed to an operating fancy yarn spinning machine: "This is German equipment we introduced last year. It can simultaneously realize three processes: core-spun, slub, and segment color. Changing a pattern takes as little as 20 minutes at the fastest. It used to take a week to produce a batch of customized yarns, but now we can deliver in 3 days." He opened the production log: "You see, since July, our order schedules have been arranged until the end of August. Among them, the proportion of fancy yarns has increased from 30% last year to 45%. Customers all say we 'understand trends better than design companies'."

From starting with hand-cranked spinning wheels in 1993 to now having 8 automated production lines with an annual capacity exceeding 10,000 tons, Antai Textile's growth trajectory is exactly a microcosm of China's textile industry shifting from "scale expansion" to "quality improvement". When asked about the secret, Li Xiong and Director Huang said in unison: "Keep an eye on the market and adapt to technological changes." Just like now, on the large screen in the central control room, the imported cotton port inventory data is being updated in real time—down 3.08% week-on-week, with total inventory less than 400,000 tons. Li Xiong smiled and said: "The raw material market is volatile, but as long as we refine our products and speed up our services, we can steadily steer the helm in the storm."

In the workshop, a new batch of "Maple Leaf Orange" colored acrylic tops is rolling off the production line one after another. The four characters "Antai Textile" printed on the packing tape are particularly eye-catching under the lights. These yarns, carrying 32 years of craftsmanship, are about to set off for clothing factories across the country to weave the fashion story of this autumn. And Antai Textile's story, intertwined with these threads, continues to write the resilience and wisdom belonging to Chinese textile enterprises.