Knitting Industry Increased Machinery Purchases in 2020 Despite Pandemic
Starting from June 2020, enterprises operating in the knitting industry managed to add 1779 circular knitting machines to their manufacturing lines. The total value of the investment in knitting machinery in 2020 was 81 billion US Dollars.
According to TURKSTAT data, the number of machines purchased in 2019 was 1021 whereas in 2020 this number was accumulated to 1779. Especially due to the new normalization period that started in June 2020, knitted fabric manufacturers increased their investments by 75 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. While European countries took first place in machinery imports in the past years, China was at the top with 773 machines in 2020. After China, Germany ranked second with 570 machines, followed by Italy with 254 machines. These countries were followed by Taiwan with 78 machines, Japan with 82 machines, South Korea with 27 machines, Czechia with 7 machines, the United Kingdom with 5 machines, and Spain, Malaysia, and Portugal, one machine from each.
Although China ranks first with respect to the number of machinery imported, regarding the amount paid, Germany ranked first with 39 million US Dollars, China ranked second with approximately 22 million US Dollars, and Italy with 10 million US Dollars. China ranks first in needle purchases, which are the most important consumables for circular knitting machines. According to TURKSTAT Foreign Trade Statistics Data, in needle imports in kg; China came first with 42,423 kg, South Korea ranked second with 20,000 kg, and Germany ranked third with 11,164 kg. Variations in the weight of needles can be observed depending on the types of needles. If we assume that an average of 2 thousand needles corresponds to 1 kilogram, this table demonstrates to us that 216 million needles were imported to our country in 2020 and 33 million US Dollars were paid in return.
Knitted Fabric Exports
Knitted fabric exports in the January-December 2020 period amounted to 1.5 billion US Dollars. In December 2020, knitted fabric exports increased by 50.6 percent. The most important country in knitted fabric exports in the January-December period was Italy with 208 million US Dollars’ worth of exports. Other prominent countries in knitted fabric exports in the same period are; Bulgaria and Belarus.
Considering the EU countries, which have a share of 47.5 percent in our knitted fabric exports; our exports decreased by 3.6 percent in the January-December period of 2020 and amounted to 705 million US Dollars. In December 2020, the exports to the EU countries amounted to 70 million US Dollars with an increase of 61.5 percent.
