CSMA Business & Trade Committee Issues Initiative—Strengthening Industry Self-Discipline to Promote Healthy Development of the Sewing Machinery Market

In recent years, with the global economy sluggish and downstream demand contracting, the global sewing equipment market has quickly shifted from being driven by growth to undergoing stock adjustment. In China, contradictions such as homogeneous development and structural overcapacity in the sewing machinery industry have become increasingly prominent. In an era where effective supply exceeds market demand, disorderly competition—such as low-price rivalry, patent infringement, zero down payments, and extended account terms—has intensified, spreading from the domestic market to overseas. These chaotic practices have led to declining profit margins across the sewing machinery industry chain, gradually trapping the entire sector in a cycle of low prices, slim profits, and weakened confidence. Such conditions hinder innovation, suppress market vitality, damage the industry’s reputation, and obstruct high-quality development.

At present, China’s sewing machinery industry is at a critical stage of transformation and upgrading, with innovation-driven development accelerating. The market structure and environment are undergoing profound changes. A healthy and orderly market environment and a fair, regulated competitive ecosystem are the foundations for sustainable industry development. To thoroughly implement the national directive on curbing “involution” competition, standardize corporate behavior, strengthen industry self-discipline, prevent the spread of such disorderly competition, foster a fair, orderly, and healthy market, and promote high-quality industry development, the CSMA Business & Trade Committee issues the following 12-point initiative to the entire industry:

Ⅰ. Uphold the Principle of Integrity and Strengthen Business Foundations

1. Abide by laws and regulations. Strictly comply with and implement national laws and regulations, including the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People’s Republic of China, Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China, and Price Law of the People’s Republic of China. Conduct production and operations in accordance with the law, maintain fair competition, and safeguard the healthy development of the industry.

2. Operate honestly and with integrity. Adhere to industry ethics, conduct business in good faith, honor commercial commitments, and eliminate practices such as false advertising, price fraud, contract breaches, and dumping. Establish systems for service disclosure, quality assurance, and rapid dispute resolution to ensure the accuracy, authenticity, and completeness of product/service information, protecting the legal rights and interests of partners and users.

3. Safeguard industry interests. Follow industry self-regulation conventions, uphold a customer-first philosophy, and avoid short-term profit-driven actions that harm users or industry partners. Gain market trust through high-quality products and services. Promote win-win cooperation between enterprises, leveraging resource sharing and complementary advantages to jointly maintain a healthy market order.

Ⅱ. Optimize the Market Environment and Enhance Product & Service Quality

4. Maintain fair competition. Adhere to fair competition, avoiding malicious price cuts, market monopolization, disparaging competitors, poaching talent, commercial bribery, theft of trade secrets, exaggerated advertising, misleading promotions, or forced exclusivity. Standardize corporate marketing behavior, advocate rational and healthy marketing, avoid initiating price wars, and emphasize cultivating comprehensive competitiveness in technology, quality, cost, efficiency, service, and brand. Together, resist market-disruptive behavior and foster a positive competitive atmosphere.

5. Improve product quality. Return to manufacturing fundamentals, uphold quality as the lifeline, establish robust quality management systems, strengthen end-to-end quality control, and continuously promote product structure optimization and technological upgrades. Increase high-quality product supply to meet national and industry standards, actively apply digital methods to enhance production transparency and traceability, and build user confidence while meeting growing consumer expectations.

6. Enhance service capabilities. Guided by the CSMA group standard After-Sales Service of the Sewing Machinery Industry, establish comprehensive service systems, maintain smooth communication channels, provide convenient and efficient after-sales support, promptly respond to user requests, and continuously improve user experience and satisfaction. Proactively guide and serve consumer needs, optimize service processes and user training, deepen collaboration with clients, and continuously elevate service quality and responsiveness.

Ⅲ. Promote Technological Innovation and Pursue Differentiated Development

7. Commit to innovation and upgrading. Adopt a long-term perspective, increase investment in innovation, strengthen talent development, and focus on customer pain points and emerging trends to drive product technological innovation. Concentrate resources on technological, product, and management innovation, continuously optimize product structures, upgrade value chains, and accelerate enterprise transformation toward intelligence, services, and sustainability to meet increasingly diverse user demands.

8. Respect intellectual property. Firmly oppose unfair competition and infringement, actively create and protect proprietary intellectual property, respect the innovation and IP of others, and resolutely resist plagiarism, counterfeiting, and piracy. Increase original innovation, strengthen patent collaboration, and enhance industry credibility.

9. Implement differentiated development. Based on their own characteristics and advantages, enterprises should develop differentiated strategies in product development, market segmentation, marketing services, and brand building. By providing unique products, technologies, and services, companies can showcase distinct value and competitiveness, effectively avoid price wars and homogenized competition, and lead the industry toward personalized and differentiated development.

Ⅳ. Optimize Industry Structure and Strengthen Social Responsibility

10. Optimize enterprise structure. Appropriately adjust and control capacity, scientifically assess market trends and demand, shift focus from quantity growth to quality improvement, avoid blind expansion and low-level construction, and mitigate homogeneous and involution-style competition. Expand into diverse markets, leverage professional expertise and downstream layouts, cultivate niche markets, explore emerging markets, and develop potential markets. Actively build a diversified, globally connected market structure while avoiding disorderly competition in localized hotspots.

11. Fulfill social responsibilities. Strengthen production safety, environmental protection, and labor safeguards; enhance workforce professionalism; respect and protect user rights; resolve consumer disputes effectively; and actively participate in public welfare to improve social image. Actively implement the “dual carbon” goals, establish and improve ESG systems, develop high-value-added green equipment, and build green manufacturing facilities. Emphasize energy saving, emissions reduction, and environmental protection in production and operations, promoting sustainable industry development.

12. Elevate self-discipline. Establish and improve compliance management systems, risk prevention mechanisms, and internal supervision frameworks. Raise awareness and ability of all personnel to comply with regulations and exercise self-discipline. Voluntarily accept government, industry, media, and public supervision. Support and participate in industry association work, jointly formulate, improve, and follow industry self-discipline conventions, standards, and norms. Advocate openness, cooperation, sharing, and communication, and jointly condemn and resist actions that seriously violate laws, disrupt industry order, or damage industry reputation, continuously raising the level of self-discipline.

All sewing machinery enterprises should shift from “passive compliance” to “active co-creation” in industry self-discipline, and from “price competition” to “value creation.” Enterprises are encouraged to respond actively, participate jointly, and implement these practices conscientiously. Let us work together to strengthen self-discipline, promote the healthy development of the sewing machinery market, and enhance China’s global competitiveness in sewing machinery.