According to the 42th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), 2019 worldwide shipments of spinning, texturing, weaving, knitting and finishing machinery decreased on average compared to 2018.
Deliveries of new short-staple spindles, open-end rotors and long-staple spindles dropped 20%, 20% and 66%, respectively. The number of shipped draw-texturing spindles declined by 4.5%, and deliveries of shuttleless looms decreased by 0.5%. Shipments of large circular machines decreased by 1.2%, while those of flat knitting machines fell 40%. The sum of deliveries in the finishing segment also decreased by 2% on average.
The 2019 survey was compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive share of the world’s production.
Spinning Machines
Total shipments of short-staple spindles in 2019 decreased by about 1.7 million to a level of 6.96 million. Most of the new short-staple spindles (92%) were shipped to Asia & Oceania, where deliveries decreased by 20%. While levels stayed relatively smaller, 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.
A total of 563,600 open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2019, which represents a drop of 147,500 rotors compared to 2018. Ninety percent of the global shipments went to Asia & Oceania, to which deliveries decreased by 21% to 517,000 rotors. Indonesia and Pakistan, the world’s fifth and sixth largest investors in open-end rotors, increased their investments by 120% and 15%, respectively. China, Vietnam, India and Uzbekistan, the world’s first to fourth largest investors in 2019, decreased investments by 48% on average.
Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles decreased from 120,000 in 2018 to nearly 40,000 in 2019 (down 66%). This effect was mainly driven by a fall in deliveries to Europe (down 72%) and South America (down 80%). Eighty percent of total deliveries went to China and India.
Texturing Machines
Global shipments of single-heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for processing nylon filaments) increased by 12% from nearly 22,800 in 2018 to 25,500 in 2019. With a share of 88%, Asia & Oceania was the largest destination for single-heater draw-texturing spindles. China and Taiwan 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 in worldwide shipments decreased to 90%. China remained the largest investor accounting for 77% of global shipments.
Weaving Machines
In 2019, worldwide shipments of shuttleless looms decreased by 0.6% to 133,250 looms. Shipments in the categories of air-jet looms and rapier/projectile looms fell by 7.7% to 30,200 and by 22% to 25,000, respectively. Deliveries of water-jet looms increased by 12% to 78,000. The main destination of shuttleless looms in 2019 was Asia & Oceania, accounting for 95% of 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 accounted for 89% of total deliveries. Bangladesh further played an important role in the rapier/projectile loom segment with 20% of global shipments.
Circular & Flat Knitting Machines
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines decreased by 1.2% to 26,400 machines in 2019. The region of 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 machines), China was the favored destination. India and Vietnam ranked second and third with 2,670 and 2,210 machines, 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 to 68,760 machines.
Finishing Machinery
In the finishing machinery segment of “fabrics continuous”, shipments of stenters and washing equipment (stand-alone) grew by 34% and 0.6%, respectively. The growth in stenter deliveries is mainly explained by 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, shipments of jigger dyeing/beam dyeing machines rose 35% to 561 units. Deliveries in all other machine categories in both finishing sub-segments (i.e., continuous and discontinuous) decreased in 2019.