Circular knitting machinery

In this report, circular knitting machinery is divided into two categories:

● single jersey machinery; and

● double jersey machinery.

Single jersey machines are equipped with a single cylinder of needles and are used to produce plain single thickness fabrics.

Double jersey machines are single jersey machines with a “dial” which houses an extra set of needles positioned horizontally adjacent to the vertical cylinder needles. The extra set of needles facilitates the production of double, thicker fabrics.

Each category is further divided into two size ranges, namely:

● machines with diameters of up to 24” (61 cm); and

● machines with diameters of 26” (66 cm) or more.

In general, circular knitting machines with diameters of 26” or more are used for the production of made-up garments.

Machines with diameters of 24” or less, on the other hand, are “body size machines” which are used for making seamless garments.

Single jersey machines accounted for 35.3% of global shipments of circular knitting machinery in 2016 (Table 5). This share was up slightly compared with 34.9% in the previous year, despite a 1.4% decline in shipments of this type of machinery in 2016.

Shipments of double jersey machines fell by a steeper 3.3% and their share of global shipments of all circular knitting machinery declined from 65.1% to 64.7%.

Table 5: Breakdown of circular knitting machinery shipments by type and region, 2016

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Within the overall total for 2016, larger machines—those with diameters of 26” or over—made up a commanding 91.3% of global shipments, although this share was down slightly from 91.4% in the previous year.

Meanwhile, smaller machines—those with diameters of 24” or less—accounted for 8.7% of global shipments in 2016, up from 8.6% in the previous year.

Shipments declined in the case of larger machines and smaller machines. However, shipments of larger machines fell at a steeper rate (down by 2.7%) than shipments of smaller machines (down by 1.9%).

In the case of smaller machines, the fall in shipments was due to a 3.0% decline in shipments of single jersey circular knitting machinery. Shipments of double jersey circular knitting machinery, by contrast, were up by 5.6%.

In the case of larger machines, the fall in shipments was due to declines in shipments of single jersey circular knitting machinery (down by 1.0%) and shipments of double jersey circular knitting machinery (down by 3.4%).

However, larger double jersey machines continued to account for the lion’s share of total shipments of circular knitting machinery, at 63.5%.