A villager makes textile at an embroidery cooperative in Tekes County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 3, 2020. Thanks to strenuous efforts from all sides, major progress has been achieved in Xinjiang. From 2014 to 2019, a sound economic momentum was sustained with an average annual GDP growth rate of 7.2 percent. Living standards of the local people have significantly improved with an average yearly growth of 9.1 percent in residential per capita disposable income, and more than 2.92 million out of the 3.09 million registered as impoverished people shook off poverty. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)

With spinners running around-the-clock, what Chinese textile makers had not foreseen was a quick and early revival of the industry when the coronavirus battered the country early this year. 

Witnessing the trend of more orders shifting to China from emerging economies like India and Bangladesh and rising domestic demand, Chinese spinning mills are again keeping busy and churning out goods needed by China and the world. 

A manager surnamed Bao from Longda Printing Textile Co, a textile maker and printer based in East China's Jiangsu Province, told the Global Times that the company's business is up 50 percent this month, compared with the previous year. 

The company's products include digitally printed synthetic textiles, often used in interior furnishings such as curtains and sofas. 

The upcoming Double Eleven (November 11) shopping festival has given an extra boost to Bao's business. Around 35 percent of last month's new orders were made in preparation for the shopping spree. Bao expected that new orders will not peak until the festival is over. 

"A lot of orders are coming at the last minute, and the production time for each order has been slashed by half to only a week this year, because of surging demand," Bao said.

The soaring orders are putting stress on the company's recruiting, with starting salaries up by 10 percent to attract more job applications, Bao said. 

The bustle in spinning mills was on vivid display in China Textile City - Keqiao, according to Tan Ke, head of the Keqiao District Commerce Bureau in Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang Province. 

The district has the largest professional textile market in Asia and about 25 percent of the world's global fabric is traded here each year.

"The influx of orders that were previously transferred to Southeast Asian countries has been beyond the expectations of our local textile makers, as October is traditionally a low season for export.  After the National Day holiday, we saw ceaseless domestic and foreign orders," Tan told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The order surge has boosted the upstream end, and demand for raw materials exceeds supply for such items as cotton, terylene and dye. 

For instance, the spot cotton price in China climbed to 14,658 yuan ($2,184) ton on Wednesday, up more than 18 percent from the end of July.

Shenghong Chemical Fiber, a producer of polyester filament yarn based in East China's Jiangsu Province, has seen its orders surge since September.

"The orders we have taken are mainly for the domestic market, which has been on the upward trend. Many clients are stocking up in advance of the upcoming Double 11 shopping festival," Zhu Junying, general manager of Shenghong's marketing department, said.

"Our inventory is the lowest level so far this year," Zhu added.

Surging downstream demand is pushing up orders for textile materials. According to statistics from the e-commerce giant Alibaba, trade in clothing items rose 274 percent year-on-year in September, with the number of buyers increasing 266 percent.

As to whether international orders will keep flowing back to China from other emerging economies, Tan said it depends on the situation of the pandemic. "When India and countries in Southeast Asia contain the virus, we may receive fewer orders. Meanwhile, the demand side will also have an impact. And, France and Germany both announced new lockdowns on Wednesday to curb virus spread."

However, Chen Jing, vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, said the trend will persist for two or three years on the premise that the COVID-19 pandemic will be brought under control in those places next year.

"Multinational companies find it difficult to switch their supply chains from place to place in a short time," Chen told the Global Times on Thursday.

Even if the orders go back, for example, to India, it is doubtful whether the country can fully support the supply chain, given the impact of the health crisis on its textile industry.

According to the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, the recovery for the domestic market is expected to be quite steep in the post-pandemic period.

In comparison, China could offer multinationals a good solution in the short term based on its stable and complete supply chain, high efficiency, and sufficient production capacity, since the country has successfully emerged from the pandemic.