Overall orders of textile machinery for the third quarter of 2013 dropped by 7% compared to the previous quarter, ACIMIT reports.

ACIMIT President Raffaella Carabelli said: “The slowdown in the Chinese market is taking its toll abroad, whereas in Italy a general lack of confidence is hurting a recovery in investments.”

Figures

Based on an economic study conducted by ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machine Manufacturers, the overall index for orders during the year’s third quarter amounts to a value of 84.5 points, for a 7% drop compared to the previous three months.

On the export markets, orders have fallen by 9%, whereas domestically they have remained substantially stable compared to the period from April to June. 

Chinese market

“Exports have always been our strong suit,” commented Carabelli. “A decline in orders abroad affects the performance of the entire sector. What’s especially worrisome is the slowdown in technology investments in China, which represents our primary foreign market (accounting for roughly 20% of Italian exports).”

“On other important foreign markets, the situation is much better, but it isn’t enough to counterbalance the drop in China. Further complicating this situation is the record high euro exchange, which penalizes our exports in markets such as India, Brazil and South Africa.”

Italian textile machinery sector

Italy’s textile machinery sector numbers around 300 manufacturers, with roughly 11,400 workers. Production for the industry in 2012 amounted to EUR 2.4 billion.

Exports accounted for 83% of total production in 2012, amounting to EUR 2.0 billion. Foreign sales are directed at some 130 different countries.

www.acimit.it