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The Textile Magazine
MAY 2012
textile machinery
enables quality enhancements to the
final product.
Price, flexibility and versatility
comprise the determining factors for
new equipment purchases. As such,
the market is witnessing emergence
of more efficient machines, at
competitive prices, thanks to rapid
technological advances in the textile
machinery industry. End-users
are increasingly seeking complete
automation solutions with enhanced
flexibility that can be availed at rea-
sonable costs. As the textile machin-
ery is used for manufacturing home
carpets and upholstery for furniture
and automobiles, changing fash-
ion trends in these markets affect
demand for textile equipment.
Following a period of favora-
ble conditions for investment, the
textile industry awakened to one of
the toughest economic downturns
in 2008, which impacted the overall
rate of growth resulting in decline
of both imports and exports of
textile machinery. The challenging
market conditions led to produc-
tion cutbacks, workforce downsiz-
ing, and postponement of proposed
investments. All major textile
machinery exporting countries,
including Germany, Italy, Japan,
China and Switzerland, experienced
export declines. Though there was
an increase in demand for premium
fabrics globally, demand for textile
machinery used in production of
these fabrics did not increase pro-
portionately.
The industry witnessed a strong
resurgence in demand in 2010 that
cooled off eventually by mid-2011
following the disruption in econom-
ic growth as a fallout of the sover-
eign debt crisis in Europe. Demand
in the EU continues to remain weak
as the economic uncertainty con-
tinues to hinder investments in the
textile industry sector.
Further, spinning mills continue to
face margin pressures due to volatil-
Global Industry Analysts,
Inc. (GIA) has stated that
the global market for textile
machinery is projected to
reach $22.9 billion by 2017.
Major factors driving growth
in the textile machinery
market include economic
recovery post recession,
rising demand for nonwoven
disposable textile products,
increasing demand from
emerging regions, especially
Asia-Pacific, and rising
demand for environmentally-
friendly fibers.
New equipment purchases remain
the key growth driver to the market,
which in turn is dependent upon
the economic cycles. The market
continues to witness a shift from
conventional machinery that re-
quires availability of cheap labor to
more sophisticated machinery that