World markets for textile machinery: yarn and fabric manufacture

ABSTRACT

2020 was a poor year for the international textile machinery market, reflecting the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy and on textile and clothing supply chains in particular. There were declines in shipments of spinning machinery, draw texturing machinery, shuttleless weaving machinery and knitting machinery. Furthermore, these declines followed falls in the previous year. In 2021, however, the market is estimated to have recovered sharply to levels similar to those recorded in 2019. In spinning, shipments of short staple spindles declined by 48% in 2020 to their lowest level since 2002 while shipments of long staple spindles fell by 46% to their lowest level on record. Shipments of open-end rotors, meanwhile, fell by 27% to their lowest level since 2015. In draw texturing, shipments of double heater falsetwist spindles fell by 30% to their lowest level since 2016 and their third lowest level since 2009. Shipments of single heater false-twist spindles fell by 37% although they were still at their fourth highest level on record. In the weaving sector, shipments of shuttleless looms fell by 16% although they were still at their fourth highest level on record. In the circular knitting sector, shipments of single jersey machinery shot up by 48% to their highest level since 2013 but shipments of double jersey machinery fell by 4%. Nevertheless, they were still at their fifth highest level on record. In the flat knitting sector, shipments of electronic flatbed knitting machinery plunged by 53% to their lowest level since 2013 and their second lowest level since 2009. A geographical breakdown shows that the trends in shipments of yarn machinery and fabric machinery to the textile industry in China were largely in line with world shipments, reflecting the fact that the Chinese textile industry takes a large share of global shipments. Outside China, there were declines in shipments of eight of the nine major types of yarn machinery and fabric machinery to the textile industries in India and South Korea and declines in shipments of seven of the nine major types of machinery to the textile industries in Italy, the USA, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. However, there were increases in shipments of all nine of the major types of machinery to the textile industry in Turkey, there were increases in shipments of eight of the nine major types of machinery to the textile industries in Argentina and Iran, and there were increases in shipments of six of the nine major types of machinery to the textile industry in Sri Lanka. © Textiles Intelligence Limited 2022.