Global spindle shipments rise, looms dip in 2022: ITMF

Shipments of large circular knitting machines declined by 27 per cent and shipped flat knitting machines registered a 24 per cent reduction. The sum of all deliveries in the finishing segment decreased by 28 per cent on average, according to the main results of the 45th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) released by ITMF.

The report covered six segments of textile machinery, namely spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting, and finishing. The 2022 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production.

The total number of shipped short-staple spindles increased by 2.1 million units in 2022 to a level of 9.76 million. Most of the new shipments went to Asia and Oceania at 86 per cent where deliveries increased by 21 per cent compared to 2021. Europe (including Turkiye) and North America rank second and third with respect to new deliveries. While levels remained relatively small in Africa, the region ranked fourth and experienced the strongest surge in YoY shipments with a 290 per cent increase (primarily going to Egypt). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkiye, and Uzbekistan.

About 1.28 million open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2022. This represents 587,000 additional units compared to 2021. Around 87 per cent of global shipments went to Asia and Oceania where deliveries increased by 91 per cent to 1.1 million rotors. China, India, and Turkey were the world’s three largest investors in rotors and saw investments surging by 67 per cent, 261 per cent, and 91 per cent, respectively. Deliveries of rotors rose in all major destination countries except for Vietnam and Brazil, the seventh and eighth largest destinations in 2022, where shipment of rotors decreased by 34 per cent and 30 per cent compared to 2021—totalling around 15,000 units in each case.

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased from 31,6000 in 2021 to 93,000 in 2022 at 195 per cent. This effect was mainly driven by a rise in deliveries to Asia and Oceania with a 435 per cent increase in investment. About 21 per cent of total deliveries were shipped to China, 20 per cent to Uzbekistan, and 15 per cent to Iran.

Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) decreased by 14 per cent from nearly 75,1000 units in 2021 to 64,4000 units in 2022. With a share of 95 per cent, Asia and Oceania remained the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles in 2022. China, Turkiye, and Japan were the three main investors in this segment with a share of 84 per cent, 3.5 per cent, and 2.3 per cent of global deliveries, respectively.

In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), global shipments decreased by 13 per cent to a level of 756,000 spindles. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments remained at 95 per cent and China continued to be the world’s largest investor, accounting for 86 per cent of global shipments.

In 2022, global shipments of shuttle-less looms decreased by 23 per cent to 114,000 units. Deliveries in the categories ‘air-jet’ and ‘water-jet’ dropped by 13 per cent and 38.4 per cent to 39.3 and 46.6 thousand looms, respectively. The number of ‘rapier and projectile’ looms rose by 5.3 per cent to 28,3000 units. The main destination for shuttle-less looms in 2022 was Asia and Oceania with 93 per cent of worldwide deliveries. Around 95 per cent, 85 per cent, and 97 per cent of global air-jet, rapier/projectile, and water-jet looms were shipped to that 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 11.4000 units—a 70 per cent increase compared to 2021.

Global shipments of large circular knitting machines declined by 27 per cent to 28,651 units in 2022. The region Asia and Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 77 per cent of global shipments. China was the favoured destination with 45 per cent of all deliveries (i.e., 9,930 units) despite a decrease of 55 per cent compared to 2021. India and Bangladesh ranked second and third destinations with 3,105 and 2,644 units, respectively.

In 2022, the number of shipped electronic flat knitting machines decreased by 24 per cent to 72,6000 machines. Asia and Oceania was the main destination for such machines with a share of 83 per cent of world shipments. China remained the world’s largest investor with a 63 per cent share of total shipments despite a 41 per cent decrease in investment. Shipments to the country dropped from 67,7000 units in 2021 to 39.6000 units in 2022.

In the ‘fabrics continuous’ segment, the number of shipped stenters decreased by 35 per cent from 2,750 units in 2021 to 1,780 units in 2022. This number includes an estimate for the total number of stenters shipped by companies which have not participated to the ITMF survey to better grasp the global market size for finishing machinery.

Participating companies reported a decrease in all other machine categories covered in the report—between -2.5 per cent for ‘Relax Dryers/Tumblers’ and -81 per cent for ‘Bleaching – Line’, with exception of ‘Singeing Line’ which grew from 4 to 22 units. In the ‘fabrics discontinuous’ segment, the number of shipped ‘jigger dyeing/beam dyeing’ and ‘air jet dyeing’ declined by 35 per cent and 45 per cent to 707 units and 675 units, respectively. In 2022, deliveries in the categories ‘overflow dyeing’ increased by 4 per cent to 1,714 units.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)