In weaving, shipments of shuttleless looms to the world’s textile industries rose by 3.9% to 84,733 machines in 2016 following a 13.8% increase in 2015. As a result, shipments reached their fourth highest level on record and were above their annual average over the ten years to 2016. However, they remained below the levels seen during 2010-12.
The rise in 2016 was due primarily to an increase in shipments to the textile industry in China (up by 4,621 machines, or 11.4%).
However, there was also strong growth in shipments to the textile industries in several other countries, including those in Myanmar (up by 2,980.0%), Djibouti (up by 2,500.0%), Austria (up by 600.0%), Belarus (up by 358.6%), Uzbekistan (up by 177.5%), Morocco (up by 176.7%), Russia (up by 149.4%), Germany (up by 101.1%), Pakistan (up by 95.4%), Belgium (up by 86.4%), France (up by 79.6%), Brazil (up by 72.8%) and Turkey (up by 59.9%).
By contrast, there were sharp declines in shipments to the textile industries in a number of other countries, including Thailand (down by 63.1%), Egypt (down by 46.4%), Malaysia (down by 39.7%), the Czech Republic (down by 39.1%), Taiwan (down by 31.5%), Indonesia (down by 30.2%), the USA (down by 26.8%), Iran (down by 22.4%), Vietnam (down by 19.7%) and India (down by 12.9%).
Regionally, the textile industries in Asia took as much as 91.1% of global shipments. However, this share was down from 92.6% in the previous year as shipments to these industries increased by only 2.2%.
Elsewhere, the textile industry in other Europe (which comprises only Turkey, according to ITMF definitions) took 3.7% of global shipments. Next in importance were the industries in Western Europe (with a 2.4% share), followed by those in Eastern Europe (with a 0.9% share), North America (with a 0.8% share), Africa (with a 0.6% share) and South America (with a 0.5% share).
Among individual countries, the textile industry in China represented the largest market, having taken 53.1% of global shipments in 2016. Furthermore, this share was up from 49.5% a year earlier as shipments to the industry rose by 11.4%.
The second largest market was the textile industry in India with a 16.8% share of global shipments (down from 20.0% in 2015), followed by the industry in Bangladesh with a 9.1% share (down from 9.9% in 2015), the industry in Turkey with a 3.7% share (up from 2.4% in 2015) and the industry in Pakistan with a 3.3% share (up from 1.8% in 2015).

Textiles Intelligence Limited is a company formed to handle the portfolio of fibres, textiles and clothing publications previously produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It is our commitment, through a wide range of Special Reports and four regular titles, Global Apparel Markets, Performance Apparel Markets, Technical Textile Markets, and Textile Outlook International to supply you with the highest quality business information about the international fibres, textiles and clothing industries.
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2016 was a mixed year for the international fabric machinery market, according to data supplied by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF).
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