In the second half of January 2022, the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) conducted its 12th ITMF Corona-Survey among more than 270 companies around the world, in all segments along the textiles value chain.

For the fifth time since May 2021, companies were asked the same set of questions about their business situation, their business expectations, their order intake, their order backlog, and their capacity utilization rate.

According to the ITMF, on average across all regions and all segments, the business situation is still very favourable with +23 percentage points (pp), albeit lower than compared to November 2021 (+28pp). This high level it says, is remarkable given the fast-rising infection numbers of the Omicron variation of the corona virus since the 11th ITMF Corona-Survey (see Graph 1). The fact that a rising number of companies find themselves in a satisfactory business situation (48%) is an indication for a strong and broad recovery, it adds.

When it comes to the business expectations in six months, the global textile value chain remains very optimistic, according to the report. While the balance between more favourable and less favourable has fallen from +33pp to +25pp, it needs to be considered that these expectations are built on a very favourable business situation (see Graph 2). Or to put it differently, only 14% of companies are anticipating a less favourable business by July 2022. 

“A look at the different regions reveals that the business situation is in positive territory in all regions except for East Asia and Africa where the balance between good and bad business situation is negative. The expectations are very positive except for East Asia,” the ITMF explains.

“As for the different segments, the downstream segments – knitters/ weavers, finishers/printers, and garment producers – are catching up with the upstream segments –fibre producers, spinners, and textile machinery producers.”

Order intake has fallen from a high level of +40pp in November 2021 to +30pp in January 2022. This, the ITMF says, is in line with the slightly weaker business situation. Order intake expectations in January remained practically on the same level as in November (+40pp and +41pp, respectively).

“Since May 2021 order backlog is hovering between 2.4 and 2.9 months. The expectations do not indicate a change in the next six months. The capacity utilization rate continues to increase slowly but continuously since May 2021, indicating that the supply chain disruption is still a big – but hopefully a diminishing – concern,” the ITMF concludes.

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