New textile machinery shipments dip

Shipments in most of the textile machinery segments experienced declines in 2014. Deliveries of new short-staple spindles fell by 15 per cent from 2013 to 2014. Shipped long-staple spindles and open-end rotors increased by 70 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively. The number of shipped draw-texturing spindles grew by close to 12 per cent. Shuttleless looms and new large circular knitting machines also dropped by 14 per cent and 22 per cent year-on-year. In contrast, shipments of flat-knitting machines rose by 31 per cent.

These are the main results of the 37th 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 machinery. The 2014 survey has been compiled in cooperation with some 110 textile machinery manufacturers after 112 in 2013, representing a comprehensive measure of world production.

Spinning machinery: Shipments of new short-staple spindles fell by 15 per cent in 2014 year-on-year and more than reversed the increase of 10 per cent in 2013. The level of short staple spindles declined to 9.8 million spindles, the lowest level since 2009 and also lower than the ten-year-average of 10.9 million. Most of the new short staple spindles (91 per cent) were shipped to Asia, whereby shipments fell by nearly 17 per cent year-on-year. Thereby China, the world´s largest investor of short-staple spindles, experienced a decline of nearly 29 per cent. Four of the five largest investors for short-staple spindles originate from Asia. Including China these are India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Shipments to Turkey, the fourth largest investor, increased by 5 per cent in 2014, the third consecutive increase.

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased by 70 per cent from 80,800 in 2013 to 1,37,650 in 2014. That is the strongest increase since 2012. The majority of long-staple spindles (69 per cent) were shipped to Europe. Thereby, shipments to Turkey rose to 67,000 which is equivalent to a share of 49 per cent of global shipments. Within Europe Belarus and Italy came second and third with shipments numbering 21,216 and 10,584 spindles. In 2014, shipments to Asia increased marginally by 0.2 per cent to 29,000 spindles. While North and South America did not receive any shipments of long-staple spindles, shipments to Africa amounted to 432.

Shipments of open-end rotors improved moderately in 2014 by 2.6 per cent after they declined in the previous two years. The number of shipments reached 454,720, the highest level since 2011 and well above the long-term average of 402,669. Nearly 67 per cent of worldwide shipments of open-end rotors were destined for Asia though the pace is declining. Shipments to Asia fell by 13 per cent after declines of 13.9 per cent and 11.9 per cent in 2013 and 2012 respectively. Also, in South America shipments declined (-9.3 per cent). In contrast, shipments to Europe and, especially, North America saw strong increases of nearly 27 per cent and 402 per cent respectively.

Texturing machinery: Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) increased by 76 per cent from 2,600 in 2013 to 4,576 in 2014. With nearly 57 per cent Asia is the region where most of the single heater draw-texturing spindles were shipped to followed by Western Europe with 20 per cent and South America with close to 15 per cent.

In the segment of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments) the downward trend continued and global shipments fell by 12 per cent on an annual basis to 443,352. However, the pace of decline moderated somewhat compared to 2013 when shipments fell by nearly 30 per cent. Asia´s share of worldwide shipments amounted to close to 88 per cent. Thereby