Worldwide shipments of new textile machinery decreased in 2019

These  are  the  main  results  of  the  42th annual  International  Textile  Machinery  Shipment  Statistics  (ITMSS)  just  released  by  the International  Textile  Manufacturers  Federation  (ITMF).  The  report  covers  six  segments  of  textile  machinery,  namely  spinning, draw-texturing,  weaving,  large  circular  knitting,  flat  knitting  and  finishing.  A  summary  of  the  findings  for  each  category  is presented  below.  The  2019  survey  has  been  compiled  in  cooperation  with  more  than  200  textile  machinery  manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production.

Spinning Machinery

The total number of shipped short-staple spindles decreased by about 1.7 million units in 2019 to a level of 6.96 million. Most of the  new  short-staple  spindles  (92%)  were  shipped  to  Asia  &  Oceania,  where  delivery  decreased  by -20%.  While  levels  stayed relatively small, Africa and South America saw shipments increasing by +150% and +120%, respectively. The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

563’600 open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2019. This represents a 147’500-units drop compared to 2018. 90% of global shipments went to Asia & Oceania where deliveries decreased by -21% to 517’000 rotors. Indonesia and Pakistan, the world’s 5thand 6thlargest investors in open-end rotors, increased their investments by +120% and 15%, respectively. China, Vietnam, India, and Uzbekistan, the world’s 1stto 4thlargest investors in 2019 decreased investment by -48% on average.

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles decreased from 120’000 in 2018 to nearly 40’000 in 2019 (-66%). This effect was mainly driven by a fall in deliveries to Europe (-72%) and South America (-80%). 80% of total deliveries where shipped to China and India.

Texturing Machinery

Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) increased by +12% from nearly 22’800 in 2018 to 25'500 in 2019. With a share of 88%, Asia & Oceania was the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles. China and Chinese Taipei were the main investors in this segment with a share of 64% and 12% of global deliveries, respectively.

In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments) global shipments decreased by -5% to a level of 464’000 spindles. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments decreased to 90%. Thereby, China remained the largest investor accounting for 77% of global shipments.

Weaving Machinery

In 2019, worldwide shipments of shuttle-less looms decreased by -0.6% to 133’250 units. Thereby, shipments in the categories of “air-jet” and “rapier and projectile” fell by -7.7% to 30’200 and -22% to 25’000, respectively. The deliveries of water-jet looms increased by +12% to 78’000. The main destination for shuttle-less looms in 2019 was Asia & Oceania with 95% of all worldwide deliveries. 98%, 93%, 86% of all water-jet, air-jet, and rapier/projectile looms went to that region. The main investors were China and  India  in  all  three  sub-categories.  Deliveries  of  weaving  machines  to  these  two  countries  reached  89%  of  total  deliveries. Bangladesh further played an important role in the rapier/projectile segment with 20% of global shipments.

Circular & Flat Knitting Machinery

Global  shipments  of  large  circular  knitting  machines  fell  by -1.2% to 26’400 units in 2019. The region Asia & Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 86% of worldwide shipments. With 61% of all deliveries (i.e. 13’143 units), China was the favoured destination. India and Vietnam ranked second and third with 2’670 and 2’210 units, respectively. 

In 2019,the segment of electronic flat knitting machines decreased by -40% to around 96’000 machines. Asia & Oceania was the main destination for these machines with a share of 92% of world shipments. China remained the world’s largest investor with an 80%-share despite a -44%-decrease in investments from 122'550 units to 68'760 units.

Finishing Machinery

In the “fabrics continuous” segment, shipments of stenters and washing (stand-alone) grew by +34% and +0.6%. The growth in stenter deliveries is mainly explainedby the addition of ITMF’s estimate for the number of stenters. The total number of shipped stenters of 1’700 units thus represents an estimate of the total market for this category. 

In the “fabrics discontinuous” segment, the number of jigger dyeing / beam dyeing shipped rose by +35% to 561 units. Deliveries in all other machine categories in both finishing sub-segments (i.e. continuous and discontinuous) decreased in 2019.