In 1979, Chen Xingyu, a villager from Huayang Village, Jinfeng Town, Changle, founded a plastic mosquito net factory in the local area. A stone stirred up a thousand waves. In less than two years, the number of Jinfeng looms exceeded 3,000, and looms were heard everywhere, and every household was busy weaving mosquito nets. The curtain of the rise of Changle's textile industry was thus opened.

On December 12, 1985, the article "The Prodigal Son Returns, Gold Is Not Replaced--Sketch of Minjiang Estuary No. 3" by the famous sociologist Fei Xiaotong was published in the "Fujian Daily". He called the farmers' self-run textile enterprises he saw in Changle "grassroots industry".

Riding the spring breeze of reform and opening up, the "grassroots industry" strived to grow, gathered trees into a forest, and wrote a magnificent chapter of building a 100 billion textile city from a "city without cotton". Data shows that in 2023, the textile industry in Changle District will achieve an output value of 162.787 billion yuan, accounting for 62% of the total industrial output value of the district.

How can "grassroots industry" "grow into a forest"? Standing at the mouth of the Minjiang River, the gentle sea breeze beside my ears brings an answer - Changle, standing by the sea, has nurtured the city spirit of "great love, open-mindedness, and the ability to fight and win", which is integrated into the blood of Wuhang's children. They work hard and strive unceasingly, making the "grassroots industry" determined, resilient and energetic.

"Grassroots" have determination

This year, Hengshen Group ushered in the important moment of its 40th anniversary. Having witnessed Hengshen's development from a family workshop to a modern enterprise group integrating chemical fiber, chemical industry and new materials, President Chen Zhong said with emotion: "In the past 40 years, our three generations have only done one thing - insisting on developing industry and making the nylon 6 industry chain the largest and most complete in the world, with the best and strongest comprehensive competitiveness."

Chen Zhong's words seem to be understated, but in fact they condense Hengshen's decades of persistence and efforts to break through the "one strand of silk" industry chain.

Hengshen Group Chairman Chen Jianlong's understanding of "one strand of silk" comes from the hemp rope that his father twisted by hand. In 1984, Chen Jianlong started from "grassroots industry" and founded Longhe Knitting Factory in Jinfeng, Changle. In 2003, he founded Changle Liyuan Nylon Industrial Co., Ltd. and entered the nylon industry. In 2013, Hengshen registered Fujian Shenyuan New Materials Co., Ltd. in Lianjiang Kemen Industrial Park, moving from nylon spinning to upstream caprolactam production. In 2017, the first phase of Shenyuan's 400,000 tons of polyamide integrated project was successfully tested in one go. Two production lines were put into operation in a row within one month, and high-quality caprolactam was produced at one time, setting the best record in the industry.

Before Hengshen, Fujian and even China's textile industry, represented by Changle Textile Industry, has been deeply involved in the middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain from nylon to dyeing and finishing "a piece of cloth". The commissioning of Shenyuan marks that Hengshen has truly realized the full connection of the 8 links of the nylon 6 industrial chain (cyclohexanone-caprolactam-polyamide-nylon 6 spinning-nylon 6 texturing-warping-weaving-dyeing and finishing).

Today, thousands of tons of caprolactam are produced in Lianjiang Kemen every day, which not only provides raw materials for downstream polymerization, spinning, texturing and other links, but also opens up the vision and pattern of Hengshen Group's development. In 2023, Hengshen proposed the strategy of "focusing on the main business and one center, expanding five new materials", aiming at the high-end fine chemical industry, expanding semiconductor new materials, new energy new materials, high-end modified new materials, biomanufacturing new materials, environmentally friendly and renewable new materials, etc.

Looking back on the "Hengshen Road" at the special moment of the 40th anniversary of its establishment, Chen Zhong was very moved. "The love of Hengshen's three generations for industry is integrated into their blood. It is not only focus, but also the inheritance of family culture. It is the continuous struggle of generations of Hengshen people that can turn one grand goal into a beautiful reality." He said that Hengshen will unswervingly follow the path of globalization, do a good job in its main business in a down-to-earth manner, further transform and expand the field of new materials, focus on the overall situation and work hard on the new journey of high-quality development, and depict the bright future of "Hundred Years of Hengshen".

Grassroots are resilient

Although it is the traditional off-season for the textile industry, the production workshop of the Industrial 4.0 Super Factory of Fujian Yongrong Jinjiang Co., Ltd. in Changle presents a scene of hard work and rapid development: nylon threads shuttle like dragons, and are quickly coiled into silk cakes; intelligent robots lift heavy objects with ease, automatically grab, split, bag, and stack; boxes of spindles are shipped out of the factory and sent to all parts of the world...

The reporter learned that in the first half of this year, despite the complex and changeable global economic situation, Yongrong Co., Ltd.'s half-year "report card" is eye-catching - sales increased by more than 20% compared with last year's target, net profit increased by more than 50%, and export sales exceeded expectations by 10%. In the international market, nylon exports account for more than 35% of China's nylon exports.

Fu Zhongxian, deputy general manager of Yongrong Co., Ltd., said that the achievement of the brilliant results is due to a set of "combination punches".

First, Yongrong shares have achieved industrial chain integration and self-sufficiency in raw materials. The company independently built a caprolactam project in Putian. The first phase of the 280,000-ton annual production line was officially put into production in 2019, and the second phase of the 300,000-ton annual production line was officially put into production last year. Both produced caprolactam products that meet the national superior product standards at one time. As a result, Yongrong shares have achieved independent supply of raw materials and significantly reduced the high transportation costs, laying the foundation for a significant improvement in production efficiency and stable and excellent product quality.

Secondly, Yongrong shares attaches importance to technological innovation and R&D investment. In the first half of this year, the company's investment in product R&D increased by 30%, and the sales of new products reached a new high, especially the sales of the core products of "three yarns" ("Jinkang yarn", "Jinyi yarn" and "Jinsheng yarn") increased by more than 25% year-on-year. Yongrong shares have also introduced the world's most advanced nylon spinning equipment. Through intelligent intensiveness, the workshop area has been greatly reduced, and the unit labor force has been reduced by more than 45% and energy consumption by more than 20%.

In addition, in terms of continuously promoting green development and sustainable development, Yongrong Co., Ltd. has formulated a low-carbon development plan for raw materials, low-carbon manufacturing and low-carbon destination, optimized production processes and equipment, and reduced energy consumption and emissions; by establishing rainwater collection pools for recycling and modern wastewater recycling and treatment stations, the annual rainwater/wastewater recycling rate has reached 50%, contributing to water saving of more than 500,000 tons.

Yongrong Co., Ltd. will also integrate intelligence throughout the entire process of enterprise operations, and open up the full process of intelligent manufacturing of "order-scheduling-production-inspection-packaging-warehousing-delivery". Intelligent automation equipment has higher accuracy and stability, which can reduce losses caused by human errors, ensure product quality and consistency, reduce defective rates, and improve production efficiency and capacity. "We are also constantly improving the overall competitiveness of the company through technical transformation. At present, there are seven or eight technical transformation projects that have been approved." Fu Chongxian said.

At the China International Textile Yarn Exhibition held in Shanghai from August 27 to 29, Yongrong Co., Ltd. demonstrated the innovative leap and green upgrade of nylon, which attracted widespread attention. "We will continue to accelerate the realization of the ambitious goal of "leading in civilian nylon technology" through technological innovation, cultural cultivation, and green development, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the textile industry." Fu Chongxian said.

"Grassroots" are vibrant

Faced with fierce competition, how can traditional industries be rejuvenated? "Going online" is the general trend.

In the "cloud, pipe, and terminal" integrated 5G smart factory workshop built by Fujian Jinyuan Textile Co., Ltd., smart textile machines are lined up, and soft cotton goes through layers of processes to become fine yarn. Data such as production progress, production output, production efficiency, and key quality indicators are captured in real time and fed back on the large screen indoors on the central control platform.

The relevant person in charge of Jinyuan Textile said that the company was the first in the Changle textile industry to apply "5G+Industrial Internet" in the factory workshop. Through 5G+ full-chain and full-scene digital empowerment, it opened up various production factors, realized the comprehensive connection and efficient collaboration of the entire business process such as orders, production, and equipment, and helped the factory reduce costs and increase efficiency, and greatly improved management efficiency. After digital and intelligent transformation, the 5G smart factory has increased the machine utilization rate by 22%, the average production efficiency by 5%, the average output of employees by 8%, and the abnormal downtime by 13%, achieving breakthroughs and innovations in innovation, effectiveness, demonstration, and safety.

One flower blooms alone, not spring, but a hundred flowers bloom together, and the garden is full of spring. Jinyuan Textile's 5G smart factory has also iterated a mature and complete "Tissot Textile Cloud" solution and capability system, which has been replicated to more than 20 textile companies such as Jinlun High Fiber, Changyuan Textile, Xinhuayuan Textile, Jinyuan Textile, Huachun Color Spinning, and Xinjiang Lihua, improving the overall development quality and efficiency of the industry.

It is not only the enterprises themselves that are moving towards "newness". Taking full advantage of the province's largest digital resource cluster, Changle applies emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things to the production process of enterprises, improves the CNC rate and intelligence level of manufacturing equipment, and takes advantage of platforms such as the Fujian Branch of the Federation of Industry and Information Technology and China Unicom Southeast Research Institute to create industry-leading industrial Internet platforms such as Fujian (Changle) Textile Industrial Internet and Auxiliary Fabrics.

Batches of intelligent production lines and digital workshops have emerged one after another, empowering the entire production process; large enterprises set benchmarks and demonstrations to create a replicable and radiable development model; small and medium-sized enterprises access cloud platforms, share production information, and uniformly allocate production capacity... In today's Changle, more and more companies continue to deepen the "smart transformation and digital transformation" and break out of the traditional production model of hard work and winning by quantity through production line changes, human-machine collaboration, and cloud platforms. (Reporter Jiang Yachen)

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