Antai Textile: 32 Years of Deep Cultivation in the Acrylic Fiber Sector, Calmly Responding to Market Fluctuations with Supply Chain Resilience and Innovation
In Zhangjiagang in July, the summer heat is intensifying, yet the production workshop of Antai Textile is in an orderly manner—the machines in the dyeing process are running at a constant speed, and rolls of brightly colored acrylic fiber sliver are entering the packaging area via conveyor belts, ready to be shipped to a well-known knitting enterprise in Zhejiang. Li Xiong, the Marketing Manager, stood in the workshop's visiting corridor, holding a freshly printed industry weekly report, and smiled at Factory Director Huang from the Production Department beside him: "Jilin Petrochemical's 260,000-ton acrylonitrile plant will be put into production at the end of the month. Coupled with the recent rebound in inventory and loosening prices, it seems that we can fight the 'raw material battle' more calmly in the second half of this year."
The confidence for this 'calmness' stems from Antai Textile's 32 years of deep cultivation in the acrylic fiber field. When it was founded in Zhangjiagang in 1993, the company anchored the track of acrylic yarn. From the initial single acrylic sliver production to the current full-category matrix covering acrylic yarn, colored acrylic sliver, and fancy yarn, it relies on the accurate grasp of industry trends. Just like this July, when the industry was still discussing the short-term supply fluctuations caused by the temporary shutdown and maintenance of Shandong Haijiang's acrylonitrile plant, Antai Textile's decision-makers had already seen the signal of the raw material market transitioning from tight balance to looseness from the data of 'inventory of 45,800 tons, an increase of 3,000 tons from last week'.
"Manager Li, look at this batch of 'cloud mist blue' colored acrylic sliver; the color fastness test result is two grades higher than the customer's requirement," Factory Director Huang pointed to the report just delivered from the laboratory, with pride in his tone. As the 'helmsman' of the production end, he knows better than anyone that stable raw material supply is the cornerstone of quality. As early as when the news of Shandong Haijiang's plant shutdown spread in early July, Factory Director Huang's team launched a raw material reserve plan—relying on long-term cooperative relationships with domestic leading acrylonitrile suppliers, Antai Textile not only locked in emergency supplies during the maintenance period, but also took advantage of the window period when Lihuayi's quotation was reduced by 50 yuan/ton to 7,900 yuan/ton to reduce part of the raw material costs through the 'stepwise procurement' strategy. "Our raw material warehouse can hold 30 days of safety stock, and with the dynamic adjustment of production plans, downstream customers don't have to worry about supply interruptions at all," Factory Director Huang said, adding that this ability of 'preparing for a rainy day' is the 'survival wisdom' accumulated by the company through multiple industry cycles.
Li Xiong's marketing team, on the other hand, has focused more energy on exploring the 'demand side'. "The loosening of the raw material market is not just a simple cost reduction for us, but also a good opportunity to launch differentiated products," he explained. He noted that with the upcoming commissioning of Jilin Petrochemical's new plant, the expected increase in acrylonitrile supply is clear, and the demand of downstream spinning enterprises for 'high value-added acrylic products' is heating up. For example, Antai Textile's flagship 'phantom color fancy yarn', by mixing different proportions of colored fibers into acrylic sliver, can weave textures similar to starry sky gradients. In the first half of this year, orders from clothing brand customers in the Yangtze River Delta increased by 40% year-on-year. "In the past, customers might have paid more attention to price, but now they are more willing to pay for 'design sense'," Li Xiong said, opening the customer feedback form, which was densely recorded with designers' needs: 'colors should be more saturated', 'yarn should be fluffy but not shed hair'... These details have become the research directions of the R&D team.
In Antai Textile's technology center, the laboratory director is leading the team to debug the newly introduced intelligent dyeing equipment. This equipment can control the color difference of traditional acrylic sliver dyeing within the range of △E ≤ 1.5, which is 30% better than the industry average. "Colored acrylic sliver is our flagship product, accounting for more than 60% of revenue," Li Xiong introduced. The company's independently developed 'low-temperature environmentally friendly dyeing process' can not only reduce water consumption by 30%, but also make colors last longer. "A few days ago, an old customer from Guangdong added an order of 200 tons, precisely because our color fastness can reach level 4 or above, and it basically doesn't fade after three washes."
From the commissioning of the first acrylic sliver production line in 1993 to now being an industry benchmark with a spinning scale of 50,000 spindles and an annual capacity of over 30,000 tons, Antai Textile's growth trajectory is a microcosm of the transformation and upgrading of China's acrylic textile industry. Facing the 'variation' in the raw material market in July, this enterprise rooted in Zhangjiagang did not wait passively, but used 'supply chain resilience' and 'product innovation' to find its own rhythm amid industry fluctuations. As Li Xiong said to his team at the morning meeting: "The market is always changing, but as long as we can maintain quality and keep up with demand, 'Antai Manufacturing' will go further." At this moment, the machines in the workshop are still humming, and rolls of acrylic products, carrying the warmth of Zhangjiagang, are being sent to textile industrial chains across the country and even the world, weaving a new industrial story belonging to this summer.