Global shipments of spinning, texturing, weaving, knitting and finishing machines declined in 2019 compared to the previous year, the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) said in a new report.
The report, compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers, covers six segments of textile machinery–spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing.
In the spinning machinery category, the number of short-staple spindles, used for cotton spinning, shipped decreased by about 1.7 million units in 2019 to a level of 6.96 million. Most of the new short-staple spindles were shipped to what ITMF defines as “Asia & Oceania,” where delivery decreased 20 percent.
While at small levels, Africa shipments increased 150 percent, and South America saw shipments rise 120 percent. The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
There were 563,600 open-end rotors for yarn spinning shipped worldwide in 2019, a drop of 147,500-units drop compared to 2018, with 90 percent of global shipments going to Asia & Oceania where deliveries decreased 21 percent. Indonesia and Pakistan, the world’s fifth- and sixth-largest investors in open-end rotors, increased their investments by 120 percent and 15 percent, respectively. China, Vietnam, India and Uzbekistan, the top four investors in 2019, decreased investment 48 percent on average, according to the report.
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Global shipments of long-staple wool spindles decreased 66 percent in 2019. ITMF said this was mainly driven by a fall in deliveries to Europe and South America, as 80 percent of deliveries went to China and India.
In the texturing machinery sector, global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles mainly used for polyamide filaments increased 12 percent in 2019, with 88 percent going to Asia & Oceania. China and Taiwan were the main investors in this segment with 64 percent and 12 percent of deliveries, respectively.
In the category of double-heater draw-texturing spindles mainly used for polyester filaments, global shipments decreased 5 percent. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments fell 90 percent, with China remaining the largest investor, accounting for 77 percent of global shipments.
As for weaving machinery, worldwide shipments of shuttle-less looms in 2019 declined 0.6 percent, with shipments of “air-jet” and “rapier and projectile” looms falling 7.7 percent and 22 percent, respectively. The deliveries of water-jet looms increased 12 percent.
The main destination for shuttle-less looms in 2019 was Asia & Oceania, with 95 percent of all worldwide deliveries. The main investors were China and India in all three sub-categories. Deliveries of weaving machines to these two countries reached 89 percent of total deliveries.
ITMF said Bangladesh further played an important role in the rapier/projectile segment, with 20 percent of global shipments.
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines dipped 1.2 percent in 2019. The Asia & Oceania region was the world’s leading investor in this category with 86 percent of worldwide shipments, and Chin was the favored destination with 61 percent of all deliveries. India and Vietnam ranked second and third.
The segment of electronic flat knitting machines decreased 40 percent for the year. Asia & Oceania was the main destination for these machines and China remained the world’s largest investor.
In the “fabrics continuous” segment, shipments of stenters and washing grew 34 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
In the “fabrics discontinuous” segment, the number of jigger dyeing/beam dyeing shipments rose 35 percent to 561 units.