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Looking through the first half of the year, the light industry showed a steady growth trend. In the first five months, the total profit of light industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 9.42% year-on-year, 11.7 percentage points higher than China's industry; the export volume of light industry increased by 8.97% year-on-year, 8.57 percentage points higher than China's export growth rate.

To expand and strengthen light industrial enterprises, it is necessary to strengthen scientific and technological innovation and brand building. Light industrial enterprises should enhance their core competitiveness and promote the light industry to move towards high-quality development through measures such as management, technology and model innovation.

The China Light Industry Federation recently announced the economic operation data of light industry in the first half of this year: in the first five months, the operating income of light industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 4.70% year-on-year, and the profit increased by 9.42% year-on-year, 11.7 percentage points higher than China's industry.

"In the first five months, with the support of policies such as tax cuts and fee reductions, the light industry has maintained a stable overall operation and continuously improved its efficiency through measures such as strengthening scientific and technological innovation and promoting standard brand building." Zhang Chonghe, President of the China Light Industry Federation, said.

In the first five months, light industry production has made steady progress, and structural adjustment has been orderly

Looking at the report card of light industry from January to May, the growth rate of major indicators such as output, revenue, and profit has accelerated, showing a trend of steady growth.

In terms of output, among the 92 light industrial products counted by the National Bureau of Statistics, the output of 56 products showed positive year-on-year growth, with a growth rate of 60.9%.

In terms of revenue, the number of light industrial enterprises above designated size reached 106,500, with operating income of 7867.838 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.70%.

In terms of profit, the total profit of light industrial enterprises above designated size reached 473.856 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.42%, and among the 20 major light industrial industries, 15 industries had a profit growth rate of more than 10%.

While the light industrial economic operation has made steady progress in terms of "quantity", the "quality" is also being optimized and upgraded.

From the perspective of product structure, the technical content is more sufficient. In the first five months, the output of products with high technical content and high added value maintained rapid growth - the output of solar cells increased by 16.37%, and the output of electric bicycles increased by 13.86%.

"In the first half of this year, despite the overall downturn in the Chinese photovoltaic market, the company's solar cells still achieved a shipment volume of 6 GW, and continued to maintain full production and sales." Xie Yi, chairman of Tongwei Co., Ltd., pointed out the key to winning the market. By continuously increasing research and development and improving the technical content of batteries, while reducing production costs, the reliability of products is also guaranteed.

At the same time, the products with the largest decline in output are those that have been transformed and replaced. Among them, the output of fluorescent lamps, incandescent bulbs, pedal bicycles, and glass insulation containers decreased by 28.46%, 18.37%, 8.45%, and 5.01% respectively. "The changes in the output of major light industrial products reflect the market-oriented consumption upgrade trend." Zhang Chonghe said.

From the perspective of operating efficiency, profitability is gradually increasing. Home appliances, light industrial products manufacturing and other industries actively meet the needs of consumption upgrades, with high-tech products and rapid profit growth. Among them, the profit of the home appliance industry increased by 20.4%.

From January to May, the profit growth rate of light industry was 4.72 percentage points higher than the revenue growth rate, and the operating income profit margin reached 6.02%, 0.3 percentage points higher than that of China's industry. In Zhang Chonghe's view, the improvement of business efficiency reflects the further improvement of the operation quality of the entire industry, and the transformation of the development model from scale expansion to quality and efficiency.

Exports rose against the trend and grew strongly, strongly supporting the stability of foreign trade

Affected by the Sino-US economic and trade frictions, China's light industry exports to the United States fell by 5% in the first quarter of this year, and some companies' export orders dropped significantly. Among them, leather, furniture, hardware products, stationery and sports goods exports to the United States were greatly affected. Many people are worried that in the face of uncertain risks in the international market, can China's light industry maintain stable development?

The latest data on industry development in the first five months show that the impact of Sino-US trade frictions on the foreign trade of the light industry is generally controllable. From January to May, the export value of light industry reached 255.548 billion US dollars, accounting for 26.67% of China's total exports, an increase of 8.97% year-on-year, 8.57 percentage points higher than China's export growth rate. Among them, the export value of ten industries such as home appliances, leather, plastics, culture and sports exceeded 10 billion US dollars in the first five months, and the export of daily machinery and light industrial machinery also showed a rapid growth trend.

So, in response to external risks, how can China's light industry exports maintain a strong momentum?

Looking at the outside, actively expanding diversified international markets, and the export country structure is more balanced. "Although orders to the United States have declined, the company still made a profit." In May this year, the order volume of sofa fabrics exported by Zhejiang Longxiang Textile Co., Ltd. decreased compared with the same period last year. General Manager Wang Chun said that by opening up the European market, the production capacity has been stabilized and people's hearts have been stabilized. "Revenue from the US market has now dropped from 90% to 60%, while other overseas markets have risen to 40%, and this ratio will continue to reverse in the future."

Data show that the share of light industry exports to the US has dropped from 24.54% last year to 20.75% in the first quarter of this year. At the same time, the share of exports to ASEAN increased by 1.1 percentage points to 11.62%, exports to the EU increased by 1.86 percentage points to 20.8%, and exports to countries along the "Belt and Road" increased by 2.12 percentage points to 28.34%.

The balanced international market structure has enhanced the light industry's prevention of export risks. Zhang Chonghe introduced that, especially in the first quarter of this year, China's light industry achieved a 12.4% increase in total exports by expanding the markets of ASEAN, the EU and countries along the "Belt and Road", despite a 5% drop in exports to the US.

Looking at the internal situation, "Benefiting from a series of national tax and fee reduction measures and optimizing the business environment, light industrial enterprises have effectively offset the impact of external market uncertainties by actively carrying out scientific and technological innovation and brand building, and have strongly supported the stable development of China's foreign trade." Zhang Chonghe said.

To make light industrial enterprises bigger and stronger, scientific and technological innovation and brand building are urgently needed

From January to May, the development of China's light industry was in good shape, and the overall operation level of the industry was better than that of China's industry, which helped the national economy grow steadily. It should be noted that there are still some development shortcomings in the current light industry.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Light Industry Federation held a symposium on the development of the light industry. At the meeting, Wang Dong, inspector of the Industry Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that light industry has a high degree of marketization and strong risk resistance, but there are many small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is necessary to achieve high-quality development through measures such as scientific and technological innovation and cultivating independent brands.

For many years, light industry has flourished. With 14.4% of the total assets of China's industry, it has achieved nearly 20% of the main business income and profits of China's industry, becoming an important livelihood industry and a pillar industry of the national economy. So how to expand and strengthen light industrial enterprises in the next step?

Enhance the autonomy of scientific and technological innovation. "In the past two years, most smartphones have become full-screen, and Xiaomi has more than 100 patents in this field." Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, believes that the more difficult the development is, the more resources should be concentrated on scientific and technological innovation. "Last year, Xiaomi's R&D investment totaled 5.8 billion yuan, and in the first quarter of this year, R&D investment increased by 50% year-on-year."

This year, the China Light Industry Federation evaluated the top 100 light industry technology enterprises in China for the first time. The average R&D investment of these enterprises accounted for 2.46% of their operating income. In addition, in recent years, a total of 74 light industrial enterprises' construction projects have entered the intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, promoting the transformation of enterprise development models to intelligence.

Promote high-end brand building. Today, many of the top 100 light industrial enterprises have become typical examples of brand building. According to the evaluation organized by the China Brand Development Promotion Association, the brand value of Gree and other brands has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the brand value of Wahaha and other brands has exceeded 40 billion yuan.

Zhang Chonghe said that the next step will be to strengthen the guidance of light industrial enterprises to strengthen brand cultivation and promote the rapid transformation of Chinese products into Chinese brands to adapt to the trend of consumption upgrading and meet people's high-quality life needs.

"The resilience of light industry development is remarkable, and the results of high-quality development are beginning to show." He Ye, vice president of the China Light Industry Federation, said that the current complex and severe international economic and trade environment is both a challenge and an opportunity, which will force light industrial enterprises to accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading. Light industrial enterprises should enhance their core competitiveness through management, technology and model innovation and other measures to promote the light industry to move towards high-quality development.

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