ZÜRICH, Switzerland — June 23, 2023 — In 2022, global shipments of new short-staple spindles, open-end rotors, and long-staple spindles rose by 27 percent, 85 percent, and 195 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Deliveries of draw-texturing spindles decreased by 13 percent and the number of shipped shuttle-less looms dropped by 23 percent. Shipments of large circular knitting machines declined by 27 percent and shipped flat knitting machines registered a 24-percent reduction. The sum of all deliveries in the finishing segment decreased by 28 percent on average.
These are the main results of the 45th 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. A summary of the findings for each category is presented below. The 2022 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production.
Spinning Machinery
The total number of shipped short-staple spindles increased by 2.1 million units in 2022 to a level of 9.76 million. Most of the new shipments went to Asia & Oceania (86 percent) where deliveries increased by 21 percent compared to 2021. Europe (including Turkey) and America, North, rank second and third with respect to new deliveries. While levels remained relatively small in Africa, the region ranked fourth and experienced the strongest surge in year-on-year shipments with a 290-percent increase (primarily going to Egypt). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
1.28 million open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2022. This represents 587 thousand additional units compared to 2021. Some 87 percent of global shipments went to Asia & Oceania where deliveries increased by 91% to 1.1 million rotors. China, India, and Turkey were the world’s three largest investors in rotors and saw investments surging by 67 percent, 261 percent and 91 percent, respectively. Deliveries of rotors rose in all major destination countries except for Vietnam and Brazil, the seventh and eighth largest destinations in 2022, where shipment of rotors decreased by 34 percent and 30 percent compared to 2021 (totalling around 15 thousand units in each case).
Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased from 31.6 thousand in 2021 to 93.000 in 2022 (up 195 percent). This effect was mainly driven by a rise in deliveries to Asia & Oceania with a 435-percent increase in investment. Some 21 percent of total deliveries were shipped to China, 20 percent to Uzbekistan and 15 percent to Iran.
Texturing Machinery
Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for nylon filaments) decreased by 14 percent from nearly 75.1 thousand units in 2021 to 64.4 thousand units in 2022. With a share of 95 percent, Asia & Oceania remained the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles in 2022. China, Turkey, and Japan were the three main investors in this segment with a share of 84 percent, 3.5 percent, and 2.3 percent of global deliveries, respectively.
In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), global shipments decreased by 13 percent to a level of 756 thousand spindles. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments remained at 95 percent and China continued to be the world’s largest investor, accounting for 86 percent of global shipments.
Weaving Machinery
In 2022, global shipments of shuttleless looms decreased by 23 percent to 114 thousand units. Deliveries in the categories “air-jet” and “water-jet” dropped by 13 percent and 38.4 percent to 39.3 and 46.6 thousand looms, respectively. The number of “rapier and projectile” looms rose by 5.3 percent to 28.3 thousand units. The main destination for shuttleless looms in 2022 was Asia & Oceania with 93 percent of worldwide deliveries. 95 percent, 85 percent, and 97 percent of global air-jet, rapier/projectile, and water-jet looms were shipped to that region, respectively. The main investor for air-jet and water-jet looms was China. The main investor for rapier-and-projectile looms was India with 11.4 thousand units (a 70-percent increase compared to 2021).
Circular & Flat Knitting Machinery
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines declined by 27 percent to 28,651 units in 2022. The region Asia & Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 77 percent of global shipments. China was the favored destination with 45 percent of all deliveries (i.e., 9,930 units) despite a decrease of 55 percent compared to 2021. India and Bangladesh ranked second and third destinations with 3,105 and 2,644 units, respectively.
In 2022, the number of shipped electronic flat knitting machines decreased by 24 percent to 72.6 thousand machines. Asia & Oceania was the main destination for such machines with a share of 83 percent of world shipments. China remained the world’s largest investor with a 63-percent share of total shipments despite a 41-percent decrease in investment. Shipments to the country dropped from 67.7 thousand units in 2021 to 39.6 thousand units in 2022.
Finishing Machinery
In the “fabrics continuous” segment, the number of shipped tenters decreased by 35 percent from 2,750 units in 2021 to 1,780 units in 2022. This number includes an estimate for the total number of tenters shipped by companies which have not participated to the ITMF survey to better grasp the global market size for finishing machinery. Participating companies reported a decrease in all other machine categories covered in the report (between -2.5 percent for “Relax Dryers/Tumblers” and -81 percent for “Bleaching – Line”), with exception of “Singeing Line” which grew from 4 to 22 units. In the “fabrics discontinuous” segment, the number of shipped “jigger dyeing/beam dyeing” and “air jet dyeing” declined by 35 percent and 45 percent to 707 units and 675 units, respectively. In 2022, deliveries in the categories “overflow dyeing” increased by 4 percent to 1,714 units.
Posted: June 23, 2023
Source: International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF)
