'The World's Textile Machinery Industry: An Overview of Trade Flows and Market Shares (2002-2008)'

World trade in textile machinery suffered a sudden halt in 2008. According to ACIMIT's estimates, the decline amounted to as much as 18% of current prices compared to 2007. These alarming figures for the sector are the result of the overall economic and financial crisis which has by now spread through all segments of the real economy. Major exporting Countries of textile and clothing items have observed a significant drop in export volumes, due to a slumping demand from European markets and the United States. A downsizing of production for many textile businesses has meant that plans for investments originally foreseen have now been inevitably postponed.

The primary textile machinery markets closed 2008 with a considerable downswing compared to 2007. In China, imports fell of 27%, and equally striking downturns have been observed for India (-33%) and Turkey (-47%). While three global markets produced import volumes exceeding a billion euros for 2007, in 2008 only China topped this threshold. Among the worlds top ten markets for textile machinery, an increase in demand was recorded in Bangladesh, Brazil and Indonesia. The growth in imports on the part of Brazil is especially relevant, at +42% over 2007. Extending this analysis to a broader group of countries, a boost in machinery imports was also recorded for Egypt and Russia.

All primary manufacturers of textile machinery suffered from a general downturn in demand, as documented by data relating to global exports. Germany recorded a 21% drop compared to 2007 levels, with similar decreases for Italy, Japan and Switzerland. However, Chinese exports were far less pronounced, declining just 4% compared to 2007.

As far as Italys textile machinery sector is concerned, figures from 2008 indicate a drop in production of 17% compared to the previous year, for an estimated value of 1.986 billion euros. This downturn has affected both foreign and domestic sales, with exports decreasing from 1.870 billion euros in 2007 to 1.569 billion for 2008.

Italian exports recorded increases in just an handful of global markets in 2008, Brazil and Russia being the most prominent of these. On the domestic front, the difficult situation confronting the entire textile/apparel industry has halted the demand for new machinery and technology, which thus dropped 21% on annual basis.