Shipments of open-end rotors soar by 24%

Shipments of new short-staple spindles increased for the first time since 2013, while Shipments of open-end rotors rose by 24 per cent to a level over 7,88,000 rotors in 2017.

Deliveries of new short-staple spindles, long-staple spindles, and open-end rotors respectively improved by 21 per cent, 46 per cent, and 24 per cent from 2016 to 2017. The number of shipped draw-texturing spindles and shuttleless looms increased by 23 per cent and 13 per cent. Shipments of new electronic flat knitting machines and finishing machines of the category “fabric discontinuous” each rose by 44 per cent year-on-year. In contrast, deliveries of circular knitting machines stagnated in 2017 (+0.12 per cent) and finishing machines of the category “fabrics continuous” fell by 2 per cent.

These are the main results of the 40th 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. The 2017 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production. This number includes numerous Chinese companies represented by the so-called “District” (see the annex for a list of Chinese participants).

Spinning machinery
Shipments of new short-staple spindles increased for the first time since 2013. The level of short-staple spindles improved by about 1.65 million spindles. Most of the new short-staple spindles (95 per cent) were shipped to Asia, whereby shipments rose by almost 24 per cent year-on-year. Thereby China, the world’s largest investor of short-staple spindles, experienced an increase of 34 per cent, whereas deliveries to Bangladesh and Vietnam decreased by 33 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. Shipments to Indonesia strongly increase last year (+135 per cent). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment in 2017 where China, India, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles rose by 46 per cent from around 1,14,000 in 2016 to nearly 1,65,000 in 2017. Deliveries to Iran soared by 445 per cent from just around 11,000 in 2016 to around 59,000 spindles in 2017. The majority of long-staple spindles (68 per cent) were shipped to China. 30 per cent of long-staple spindles were shipped to Europe.

Shipments of open-end rotors rose by 24 per cent to a level over 7,88,000 rotors in 2017. About 85 per cent of worldwide shipments of open-end rotors were destined for Asia. Thereby, deliveries to Asia increased by about 15 per cent to nearly 6,74,000 rotors. However, China, the world’s largest investor in open-end rotors, increased its investments by only 6 per cent in 2017 when countries like Iran, Brazil, Uzbekistan, and Japan saw two to four times more deliveries compared to 2016. The world’s second and third largest investors in 2016 were Turkey and India.

Texturing machinery
Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) decreased by 87 per cent from nearly 8,500 in 2016 to 1,060 in 2017. With a share of 50 per cent, Asia is the region where most of the single heater draw-texturing spindles were shipped to, followed by Eastern and Western Europe with a share of 36 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

In the segment of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments) the downward trend ended and global shipments increased by 27 per cent on an annual basis to about 340’000 spindles. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments amounted to 90 per cent. Thereby, China remained the largest investor accounting for 66 per cent of global shipments.

Weaving machinery
In 2017, worldwide shipments of shuttle-less looms increased by 12 per cent to 95,400 units. Thereby, shipments of air-jet, water-jet, and rapier/projectile shuttleless looms increased by 18 per cent (to almost 27,000), 14 per cent (to 36,200), and 7 per cent (to 32,000), respectively.

Not surprisingly, the main destination of shipments of all shuttle-less looms (airjet, waterjet and rapier/projectile) in 2017 was Asia with 91 per cent of worldwide deliveries, of which 48 per cent were water-jet looms, 31 per cent rapier/projectile looms, and 28 per cent air-jet looms. The share of rapier/projectile to the total shuttle-less looms shipped to Europe and the Americas reached 65 per cent and 37 per cent while the share of water-jet looms was respectively 2 per cent and 25 per cent in the same regions.

Circular and flat knitting machinery
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines rose slightly by 0.12 per cent to a level close to 28,000 units in 2017. Asia is also the world’s leading investor in this category. 84 per cent of all new circular knitting machines were shipped to Asia in 2017. With 39 per cent of worldwide deliveries, China was the single largest investor. India and Vietnam rank second and third with 5,100 and 2,000 units, respectively.

In 2017, the segment of electronic flat knitting machines soared by 44 per cent to around 2,02,000 machines, the highest level ever. Not surprisingly, Asia received the highest share of shipments (96 per cent). China remained by far the world’s largest investor for flat knitting machines in 2017. Thereby, Chinese investments increased from 1,01,550 units to 1,54,850 and the country had a global share of 76 per cent.

Finishing Machinery
In the segment of fabrics continuous, shipments of mercerising-lines, singeing-lines, and stenters, increased in 2017 by 54 per cent, 11 per cent, and 2 per cent, respectively. Deliveries in the other sub-segments decreased. In the segment fabrics discontinuous, shipments of air-jet dyeing and overflow dyeing machines increased by 35 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively, whereas those of jigger dyeing/ beam dyeing machines fell by 7 per cent.