ITMF-ITMSS:Increased shipments reflects sectors’growth globally

Edited by Flora Zhao

“The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) released the results of the 40th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics(ITMSS). The report covers six segments of textile machinery, viz, spinning, draw-texturing, weaving,large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing.As per the report, short-staple spindles, long-staple spindles, and open-end rotors respectively clocked in a growth of 21 per cent, 46 per cent, and 24 per cent in deliveries from 2016.”

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) released the results of the 40th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS). The report covers six segments of textile machinery, viz, spinning, draw-texturing,weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing. As per the report, short-staple spindles,long-staple spindles, and open-end rotors respectively clocked in a growth of 21 per cent, 46 per cent, and 24 per cent in deliveries from 2016.Similarly, the number of shipped draw-texturing spindles and shuttle-less looms increased 23per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Shipments of new electronic flat knitting machines and finishing machines of “fabric discontinuous” category rose by 44 per cent year-on-year. In contrast, deliveries of circular knitting machines stagnated in 2017 and finishing machines of the category “fabrics continuous” fell 2 per cent.

Growth in international shipments

International shipments of new short-staple spindles grew by 1.65 million spindles for the first time since 2013. Most of these were shipped to Asia,shipments rose by almost 24 per cent year-on-year.Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles rose 46 per cent to nearly 165,000 in 2017. The majority of long-staple spindles (68 per cent) were shipped to China.

Shipments of open-end rotors rose by 24 per cent to a level over 788,000 rotors in 2017. About 85 per cent of worldwide shipments of open-end rotors were destined for Asia. Thereby, deliveries to Asia increased about 15 per cent to nearly 674,000 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 2 to 4 times more deliveries compared to 2016. The world’s second and third largest investors in 2016 were Turkey and India.

For a fine texture

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 where most of the single heater draw-texturing spindles were shipped, followed by Eastern and Western Europe with a share of 36 and 8 per cent,respectively.

In double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), 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 & knitting threads

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

Global shipments of large circular knitting machines rose slightly by 0.12 per cent to close to 28,000 units in 2017. Asia is also the world’s leading investor in this category. Nearly, 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. In 2017,electronic flat knitting machines soared 44 per cent to around 202,000 machines, the highest level ever.

The finishing touch

In fabrics continuous segment, 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 other sub-segments decreased. In the fabrics discontinuous segments,shipments of air-jet dyeing and overflow dyeing machines increased 35 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively, whereas those of jigger dyeing/ beam dyeing machines fell by 7 per cent.