The 7th Councilors Conference of Upholstered Furniture Council of CNFA, with the theme of "sound sleep guaranteed by technology", was held on October 14, 2021 at Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and more than 200 representatives from upholstered furniture businesses nationwide and relevant sectors were present at the conference. Chen Ji, General Secretary of CSMA, was also invited to the event.

At the meeting, Xu Xiangnan, Deputy Secretary of CNLIC Party Committee and General Director of CNFA, noted that the furniture sector, consisting of over 100,000 businesses across the country, creating 1.5 trillion CNYs each year, and making up 38% of global production, is vital to people's livelihood; upholstery, an essential part of the furniture sector, witnesses an annual demand of 60 million pieces on average, which proves its bright prospects! Facing a market brimmed with opportunities and challenges, the upholstery sector is expected to keep improving channel development, application of latest technology, product differentiation, etc., tap into new growth potentials, carve a path of innovation-oriented development, so as to render people a better life.

To promote industrial exchange, the conference includes a networking event for the upstream and downstream of the upholstery sector; representatives from key sewing machinery players including TYPICAL WANPING, SGG RICHPEACE, TPET have attended by invitation. Ms Li Xia, Sales Director of RICHPEACE, has delivered a keynote speech focusing on "the application of flexible materials in the furniture sector and their processing", which substantially demonstrated the application of automated intelligent sewing machinery into the furniture sector, and drew lots of attentions from furniture businesses representatives.

According to data collected by National Statistics Bureau, furniture businesses above the designated scale across the country have produced 68.39 million pieces in total in 2020, 2.47% lower than previous year. Last year, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector saw negative growth from January to May in a row, then began to gradually recover from June on, while its growth rate in September and October rose above 20%, a comparatively pleasant recovery. China has exported spring mattress worth of 0.48 billion USDs from January to July this year, 29.67% higher than previous year, proving that the sector has well adapted itself to the new norms in the context of pandemic. Currently, the upholstery sector in China is composed of nearly 1,000 enterprises, with major industrial clusters in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong. In 2020, Guangdong and Zhejiang have both contributed more than 30% to national production, while Jiangsu 8%; among the top 10 upholstery manufacture regions, Hubei and Chongqing have seen significant growth of over 50%; the production percentage of Guangdong has risen to the top from the second place last year.