Shipments of Draw-Texturing Spindles Up 50% in 2018
Global shipment of new draw-texturing spindles rose by 50 per cent, while deliveries of shuttle-less looms improved by 39 per cent, according to the 41st annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) just released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF). Shipments of open-end rotors increased by 13 per cent in 2018.
Shipments of short-staple spindles was up 1.5 per cent, while shipments of long-staple spindles, circular knitting machines, and electronic flat knitting machines decreased by 27 per cent, 4 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. In the finishing segment, the sum of machines shipped worldwide in the category ‘fabric continuous’ and ‘fabric discontinuous’ fell by 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent year-on-year, respectively.
The ITMF report covers six segments of textile machinery, namely spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing. The 2018 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production.
In the spinning machinery segment, the total number of shipped short-staple spindles increased by about 126,000 units to a level of 8.66 million. Shipments increased for the second consecutive year, but the global trend slowed down. The most dynamic destinations recorded in 2018 were South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and Egypt with increases of 834 per cent, 306 per cent, 290 per cent, 285 per cent, respectively. The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
Global shipments of open-end rotors were 721,000 in 2018, representing an 83,000-units increase compared to 2017. However, China, the world’s largest investor in open-end rotors, increased its investments by 7 per cent in 2018 while deliveries to Thailand, Malaysia, and Egypt rose by over 3 times.
In terms of texturing machinery, global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) increased by 48 per cent from nearly 15,500 in 2017 to 22,800 in 2018
In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments) the positive trend continues and global shipments increased by 50 per cent on an annual basis to about 490,000 spindles.
In weaving machinery segment, worldwide shipments of shuttle-less looms increased by 39 per cent to 133,500 units in 2018. Shipments of air-jet and water-jet looms increased by 21 per cent to 32,750 and 91 per cent to 69,240, respectively. The deliveries of rapier/projectile looms dropped by 5 per cent to 31,560. The main destination for shuttle-less looms in 2018 was Asia & Oceania with 93 per cent of all worldwide deliveries. Likewise, 92 per cent of all water-jet looms, 83 per cent of all rapier/projectile looms, and 99 per cent of all air-jet looms went to that region. The main investors were China and India in all three categories. Deliveries of weaving machines to the two countries reached 81 per cent of total deliveries. Turkey and Bangladesh further played an important role in the rapier/projectile segment with a combined 18 per cent of global shipments.
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines fell by 4 per cent to 26,300 units in 2018. Asia & Oceania was also the world’s leading investor in this category with 85 per cent of all new circular knitting machines shipped to the region. With 48 per cent of worldwide deliveries, China was the largest investor. India and Vietnam ranked second and third with 2,680 and 1,440 units, respectively.
In 2018, the segment of electronic flat knitting machines decreased by 20 per cent to around 160,000 machines.
Among finishing machinery, in the segment of fabrics continuous, shipments of washing (stand-alone), singeing line, relax dryers/tumblers, stenters, and sanforisers/compacters increased in 2018 by 58 per cent, 20 per cent, 9 per cent, 3 per cent, and 1 per cent, respectively. In the category fabrics discontinuous, shipments of air-jet dyeing machines increased by 16 per cent and deliveries of overflow dyeing and jigger dyeing/beam dyeing machines fell by 7 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.
