During the first quarter of 2020, the order intake for Italian textile machinery registered a sharp drop, as the COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the sector. The consequences on orders is expected to be even worse in the second quarter.
According to ACIMIT (the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers), the index of order intake for textile machinery during the period from January to March 2020 fell 31% compared to the same quarter of 2019. The index value stood at 72.2 basis points (2015 = 100).
The intake of orders was negative both for foreign markets and Italy. Orders for foreign markets dropped 26%, while those for the domestic market fell 57% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
“The order index sank compared to 2019, a year already negative,” ACIMIT President Alessandro Zucchi says. “Indeed in 2019 the Italian textile machinery industry observed decreases both in production (down 13%) and in exports (down 14%) compared to the year before.”
Following a difficult year, Italian textile machinery had to face the COVID-19 pandemic, which led, as a first consequence, to the slowdown of main markets in the sector (i.e., China, Turkey and India) in the first month of 2020.