Worldwide Shipments Of New Textile Machinery Decreased In 2020

Market Intelligence

Worldwide Shipments Of New Textile Machinery Decreased In 2020

In 2020, global shipments of spinning, texturing, weaving, knitting, and finishing machines decreased on average compared to 2019. Deliveries of new short-staple spindles, open-end rotors, and long-staple spindles dropped by 48%, 27%, and 46%, respectively. The number of shipped draw texturing spindles declined by 30% and deliveries of shuttleless looms shrunk by 16%. Shipments of flat knitting machines contracted by 53%, while shipped large circular machines marked the exception with a 13% growth. The sum of all deliveries in the finishing segment also dropped by 17% on average. These are the main results of the 43rd annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) just released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF). Spinning machinery The total number of shipped short-staple spindles decreased by about 3.3 million units in 2020 to a level of 3.63 million. Most of the new short-staple spindles (88%) were shipped to Asia and Oceania, where delivery decreased by 50%. While levels stayed relatively small, Europe saw shipments increasing by 76% (mainly in Turkey). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. As many as 422,000 open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2020. This represents 151,000 units less compared to 2019. Eighty-three percent of global shipments went to Asia and Oceania where deliveries decreased by 32% to 351,000 rotors. Turkey, and Pakistan were the world's 2nd and 3rd largest investors in open-end rotors after China and saw investments surging by 290% and 42%, respectively. China, India, Uzbekistan, and Brazil, the world's 1st, and 4th to 6th largest investors in 2020 decreased investment by 30% on average. Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles decreased from about 40,000 in 2019 to nearly 22,000 in 2020 (-46%). This effect was mainly driven by a fall in deliveries to Asia and Oceania with a decrease in investment of 75%. Eighty percent of total deliveries were shipped to Iran, Turkey, and Italy. Texturing machinery Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) decreased by 36% from nearly 26,000 units in 2019 to 16,000 units in 2020. With a share of 89%, Asia and Oceania was the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles. China, Japan, and Chinese Taipei were the main investors in this segment with a share of 63%, 9%, and 8% of global deliveries, respectively. In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments) global shipments decreased by 30% to a level of 325,000 spindles. Asia's share of worldwide shipments remained stable at 90%. Thereby, China remained the largest investor accounting for 78% of global shipments. Weaving machinery In 2020, worldwide shipments of shuttleless looms decreased by 16% to 112,000 units. Shipments in the categories `airjet' and `rapier and projectile' fell by 3% to 29,337 units and by 15% to 21,542, respectively. The deliveries of waterjet looms decreased by 21% to 61,483. The main destination for shuttleless looms in 2020 was Asia and Oceania with 94% of all worldwide deliveries. Ninety-eight percent, 93%, 81% of global waterjet, airjet, and rapier/projectile looms were shipped to this region. The main investor was China in all three sub-categories. Deliveries of weaving machines to this country cover 74% of total deliveries. Circular and flat knitting machinery Global shipments of large circular knitting machines grew by 12% to 30,231 units in 2020. The region Asia & Oceania was the world's leading investor in this category with 81% of worldwide shipments. With 62% of all deliveries (i.e.15'980 units), China was the favoured destination. India and Turkey ranked second and third with 2,433 and 2,381 units, respectively. In 2020, the segment of electronic flat knitting machines decreased by 52% to around 66,000 machines. Asia & Oceania was the main destination for these machines with a share of 77% of world shipments. China remained the world's largest investor with a 38% share of total shipments despite a 74% decrease in investments. Shipments to China dropped from about 69,000 units in 2019 to 17,000 units in 2020. Finishing machinery In the `fabrics continuous' segment, shipments of sanforizers / compacters grew by 75%. All other subsegment either remained stable or shrunk. The market for stenters is expected to have been stable since 2019 and thus deliveries must have reached 1,731 units in 2020. In the `fabrics discontinuous' segment, the number of jigger dyeing / beam dyeing shipped dropped by 8.5% to 529 units. Deliveries in the categories `airjet dyeing' and `overflow dyeing' respectively decreased by 18% and 21% in 2020.