Shipments of new textile machinery rose in most segments in 2023, according to the 46th 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 2023 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production.

Circular and flat knitting machinery

Global shipments of large circular knitting machines grew by 17% to 33,000 units in 2023. The region Asia & Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 86% of global shipments. China was the favoured destination with 63% of all deliveries (18,476 units), an increase of 86% compared to 2022. India and Turkey ranked second and third destinations with 4195 and 1367 shipped units, respectively.

The number of shipped electronic flat knitting machines increased by 61% to 177,000 machines in 2023. The growth was driven by Asia & Oceania which received 92% of world shipments. Shipments to other regions decreased except for Europe (incl. Türkiye), where 650 units were delivered. China remained the world’s largest investor with a 82%-share of total shipments.

Spinning machinery

The total number of shipped short-staple spindles increased by 155,000 units in 2023 to a level of 9.78 million. Most of the new shipments went to Asia & Oceania (85%) where deliveries have been stable compared to 2022 (+0.1%). Shipment to Europe (incl. Türkiye) and North and Central America decreased by 13% and 27%, respectively, and increased in Africa (120% to 475,000) and South America (140% to 81,000). 85% of shipments to Africa went to Egypt. The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Türkiye, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Egypt.

1 million open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2023. This represents about 200,000 units less than recorded in 2022. 85% of global shipments went to Asia & Oceania where deliveries decreased by 19% to 860,000. China, India, and Türkiye were the world’s three largest investors in rotors and saw investments drop by 4%, 24% and 20%, respectively. Deliveries decreased in all major destination countries except for Brazil and Mexico, the 5th and 7th largest destinations in 2023, where shipment rose by 20% and 46% compared to 2022.

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased to 98,000 unit in 2023 (+5%). This positive effect was driven by a rise in deliveries to Europe (incl. Türkiye) and South America where 25 and 1600 units were shipped, respectively. 31% of total deliveries were shipped to China, 29% to Türkiye, and 19% to Iran.

Texturing machinery

Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) decreased by 33% from nearly 65 thousand units in 2022 to 43,000 units in 2023. With a share of 97%, Asia & Oceania remained the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles in 2023. China, Türkiye, and India were the 3 main investors in this segment with shares of global deliveries of 90%, 2.6%, and 2.3%, respectively.

In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), global shipments decreased by 27% to a level of 550,000 spindles. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments increased to 97% and China continued to be the world’s largest investor, accounting for 91% of global shipments.

Weaving machinery

In 2023, global shipments of shuttle-less looms increased by 52% to 171,000 units. Deliveries in the categories air-jet and waterjet grew by 34% and 96% to 53.000 and 92,000 looms, respectively. The number of ‘rapier and projectile’ looms rose by 0.1% to 27,000 units. The main destination for shuttle-less looms was Asia & Oceania with 96% of worldwide deliveries.

97%, 85%, and 99% of global air-jet, rapier/projectile, and water-jet looms were shipped to the 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 10,000 units (despite a 8% decrease compared to 2022).

Finishing machinery

In the ‘fabrics continuous’ segment, the number of shipped stenters increased by 3% from 1780 units in 2022 to 1833 units in 2023. This number includes an estimate for the total number of stenters shipped by companies which have not participated to the ITMF survey.

Participating companies reported mixed results for all other machines in this category (between a decrease of 42% for relax dryers/tumblers and an increase of 103% for bleaching-line). In the ‘fabrics discontinuous’ segment, the number of ‘jigger dyeing / beam dyeing’ and ‘air jet dyeing’ shipped in 2023 dropped by 8% and 0.3% to 715 and 772 units, respectively. Deliveries in the categories ‘overflow dyeing’ rose by 4.2% to 2122 units.

www.itmf.org