Antai Textile, a 32-Year Industry Veteran: Steadying the 'Ship' for Customers Amid Acrylic Market Turbulence

In the early summer of Zhangjiagang, as the morning sun just swept over the production workshop of Antai Textile, Li Xiong, the Marketing Manager, holding a stack of the latest industry reports, hurried towards the production department office building. "Director Huang, the acrylic market has been quite volatile these days; we need to go over the response plan again." As he pushed open the door to Huang Weidong, Director of Production's office, the front page of the report in Li Xiong's hand bore the headline: "July Acrylic Prices May See Sharp Fluctuations."

Behind this conversation is another "head-on encounter" between the 32-year textile veteran and market turbulence. Founded in Zhangjiagang in 1993, Antai Textile has evolved from initially producing a single type of acrylic yarn to now being a full-range supplier covering acrylic yarn, acrylic top, colored acrylic top, and fancy yarns. It has long been accustomed to seeking certainty amid the ups and downs of industry cycles. Currently, the intertwined impacts of the global economy and geopolitics are placing the acrylic market at the crossroads of a new round of fluctuations – the aftershocks of the Israel-Hamas conflict persist, crude oil prices are on a roller coaster ride, and the uncertainty surrounding nearly 40% of Jilin Chemical Fiber's production capacity has further strained traders' nerves, with concerns over speculative stockpiling and price corrections interweaving in the market.

"Look at this set of data," Li Xiong pointed to the acrylonitrile cost curve in the report. "When crude oil prices rose in the first half of the year, downstream enterprises, fearing raw material shortages, increased their stockpiles by 20% year-on-year, and our acrylic top inventory once dropped below the warning line. Now that a ceasefire agreement has been reached, the rise in crude oil prices has slowed, but no one can say for sure if there will be reversals later. What customers fear most now is not rising prices, but 'holding money but not being able to buy stable supplies.'"

After listening, Huang Weidong pulled out a production schedule from the drawer, which was densely marked with switching times for products of different specifications. "This is when the flexible production line we invested in and built three years ago comes into play," he explained, pointing to the "colored acrylic top" production module in the schedule. "Traditional acrylic top relies on downstream dyeing, so customers' costs are greatly affected by dyes and environmental policies. Our colored acrylic top uses dope dyeing technology, controlling color fastness from the source. Customers can take it back and spin directly, saving 30% of the cost of the dyeing process. In recent months, several knitting customers in Zhejiang have increased their orders by 30%, precisely because they value this 'cost reduction and volatility resistance' feature."

As they spoke, Huang Weidong's phone rang; it was the workshop director reporting the arrival of raw materials. "This batch of acrylonitrile that just arrived, we locked in the price through a long-term agreement, which is 500 yuan/ton lower than the spot price," he said after hanging up. He added, "The marketing department warned of crude oil fluctuation risks three months in advance. We, together with the purchasing department, signed 'tiered price agreements' with two major acrylonitrile manufacturers in Shandong and Jiangsu, ensuring stable raw material supply while dynamically adjusting costs according to market conditions. The three raw material reserve warehouses we built in the Yangtze River Delta in recent years really seem to be 'preparing for a rainy day' now."

This confidence in "preparing for a rainy day" stems from Antai Textile's in-depth understanding of industry laws. As one of the earliest enterprises in East China to mass-produce acrylic fancy yarns, the company invests 5% of its annual revenue in research and development and currently holds 28 patents for fancy yarn structures. "The 'slub acrylic yarn' developed last year is both fluffy and wear-resistant when used in outdoor clothing. We sold 1,200 tons in the first quarter of this year, and even sports brands from Fujian came to snap it up," Li Xiong said, pulling out customer feedback records. "Customers are much less sensitive to price fluctuations for these high-value-added fancy yarns than for ordinary yarns, which is equivalent to adding a 'buffer' to our revenue."

At the other end of the workshop, several sets of intelligent doffing machines are operating in an orderly manner, with mechanical arms accurately grabbing bobbins, and parameters such as "breakage rate 0.3%" and "evenness 98.5%" jumping in real-time on the screen. "This is the digital workshop upgraded last year. The 20 production lines can achieve rapid switching of 'small batches and multiple batches,'" Huang Weidong said, leading Li Xiong to the central control room. "Look, as soon as the production capacity news from Jilin Chemical Fiber came out, the system automatically increased the stock of acrylic yarn by 15% and advanced the schedule of colored acrylic top by 3 days – we can't wait for customers to urge us; we have to take the initiative to help them 'secure demand and stabilize production.'"

This service philosophy of "taking the initiative" has enabled Antai Textile to accumulate a group of "loyal customers". The purchasing director of a well-known home textile brand in Jiangsu once joked at an industry conference: "We've been cooperating with Antai for 8 years; their acrylic top has never been out of stock. Even if raw material prices rise, they will negotiate price adjustments with us a week in advance, unlike some suppliers who just say 'out of stock' when you call." Such a reputation allowed Antai to maintain a 92% customer repurchase rate amid industry inventory fluctuations in the first half of 2025.

The afternoon sun shines through the glass windows onto the timeline "1993-2025" on the workshop wall. In the yellowed old photos, workers beside the first-generation spinning machines are intently staring at the yarn, while in the new photos, engineers in front of intelligent production lines are debugging digital systems. From initially "following the market" to now "leading demand", Antai Textile's 32 years are exactly a microcosm of Chinese textile enterprises forging resilience amid cyclical fluctuations.

"Actually, market fluctuations are not terrifying," Li Xiong said as he closed the report. The sound of a truck loading came from outside the window; it was a batch of fancy yarns being sent to Guangdong. "The key is whether we can find customers' 'pain points' amid fluctuations. They are afraid of supply shortages, so we build reserve warehouses and sign long-term agreements; they are afraid of high costs, so we engage in dope dyeing and produce high-value-added products. In the end, the textile industry isn't about who can avoid the storm, but who can steady the ship for customers amid the storm."

At this moment, the machines in the production workshop are still roaring. Those acrylic yarns, tempered through countless processes, are setting off from Zhangjiagang to textile mills across the country, and will eventually become pieces of clothing and beds of home textiles. And Antai Textile, this 32-year industry veteran, is writing a story of 'stability' and 'progress' in the ebb and flow of the acrylic market in its own way.