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30.06.2025

Global textile value chain: Between stagnation and uneven recovery

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) released findings from its 32nd Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS), conducted May 12-22, 2025, revealing sharp regional variations across the global textile industry. 

Regional Performance Varies Dramatically 
The survey shows a challenging global business situation with a -20 percentage point balance, but regional performance differs significantly. Africa emerges as the standout performer with a positive +23 pp balance, followed by South America at +6 pp. In contrast, East Asia faces significant challenges with a -48 pp balance. Looking ahead, the industry shows cautious optimism (+24 pp), with North America leading confidence at +65 pp and Africa at +54 pp, while East Asia remains negative at -18 pp. 

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) released findings from its 32nd Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS), conducted May 12-22, 2025, revealing sharp regional variations across the global textile industry. 

Regional Performance Varies Dramatically 
The survey shows a challenging global business situation with a -20 percentage point balance, but regional performance differs significantly. Africa emerges as the standout performer with a positive +23 pp balance, followed by South America at +6 pp. In contrast, East Asia faces significant challenges with a -48 pp balance. Looking ahead, the industry shows cautious optimism (+24 pp), with North America leading confidence at +65 pp and Africa at +54 pp, while East Asia remains negative at -18 pp. 

Orders and Capacity Show Mixed Signals 
Global order intake declined for four consecutive months since January, reaching -21 pp in May. Africa again leads with positive intake (+18 pp), while Europe (-45 pp) and East Asia (-41 pp) struggle most. Despite order challenges, global backlogs show modest recovery at 2.3 months. Textile capacity utilization reached 72% in May 2025. Asian markets continue to lead utilization rates, while upstream segments like spinning significantly outperform downstream operations. 

Demand Concerns Dominate 
Weak demand remains the primary concern for 61% of global participants over the next six months, with trade tensions and operational costs as secondary issues. Order cancellation rates remain stable and low across all regions.

Global Textile Machinery Shipments Show Mixed Performance in 2024:

In 2024, global shipments of new short-staple spindles and open-end rotors decreased by -40% and -39%, respectively (year-on-year). Deliveries of long-staple spindles increased by +62%. The number of drawtexturing spindles improved by +77% and shipped shuttle-less looms grew by +32%. Shipments of large circular knitting machines deteriorated by -15% and shipped flat knitting machines registered a 16%increase. The sum of all deliveries in the finishing segment slightly rose by +6%. 

These are the main results of the 47th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) just released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF). The report covers six segments of textile machinery, namely spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting, and finishing. A summary of the findings for each category is presented below. The 2024 survey has been compiled in cooperation with more than 200 textile machinery manufacturers representing a comprehensive measure of world production. 

Spinning Machinery 
The total number of shipped short-staple spindles decreased by 3.8 million units in 2024 to a level of 5.92 million. Most of the new shipments went to Asia & Oceania (90%) where deliveries decreased by -36% compared to 2023. Shipment to Africa, Europe (incl. Türkiye), North and Central America decreased by 64%, -56%, and -90%, respectively. Deliveries only increased for destinations in South America (+1.7% to 82.6 thousand) and Easter Europe (+12% to 10.5 thousand). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Türkiye, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Indonesia. 
 
623 thousand open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 2024. This represents about 390 thousand units less than recorded in 2023. 89% of global shipments went to Asia & Oceania where deliveries decreased by -35% to 557 thousand. China, India, and Türkiye were the world’s 3 largest investors in rotors but saw investments drop by -32%, -57% and -56%, respectively. Deliveries decreased in all major destination countries except for Vietnam and Bangladesh, the 4th and 6th largest destinations in 2024, where shipment rose by +214% and +44% compared to 2023. 

Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles increased to 600 thousand unit in 2024 (+60%). This positive effect was driven by a rise in deliveries to Asia and Oceania and Eastern Europe where 138 and 15 thousand units were shipped, respectively. 40% of total deliveries were shipped to Iran, 30% to China, and 13% to Vietnam. 

Texturing Machinery 
Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) increased by +95% from nearly 43 thousand units in 2023 to 84 thousand units in 2024. With a share of 98.5%, Asia & Oceania remained the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles in 2024. China, Vietnam, and India were the 3 main investors in this segment with shares of global deliveries of 95%, 1.01%, and 0.97%, respectively.  

In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), global shipments increased by +80% to a level of 960 thousand units. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments increased to 98% and China continued to be the world’s largest investor, accounting for 95% of global shipments. 

Weaving Machinery 
In 2024, global shipments of shuttle-less looms increased by +32% to 226 thousand units. Deliveries in the categories “air-jet” and “water-jet” grew by +10% and +56% to 58 and 143 thousand looms, respectively. The number of “rapier and projectile” looms dropped by -7% to 25 thousand units. The main destination for shuttle-less looms was Asia & Oceania with 97% of worldwide deliveries. 97%, 87%, and 99% of global air-jet, rapier/projectile, and water-jet looms were shipped to the region, respectively. The main investor in all loom categories was China where shipment grew by 30% (air-jet), 38% (rapier and projectile) and 63% (water-jet). 

Circular & Flat Knitting Machinery 
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines decreased by -15% to 28 thousand units in 2024. Asia & Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 81% of global shipments. China was the favoured destination with 45% of all deliveries (10’786 units), a decrease of -42% compared to 2023. India and Vietnam ranked second and third destinations with 3’899 and 2’559 shipped units, respectively.  

The number of shipped electronic flat knitting machines increased by +16% to 135 thousand machines in 2024. The growth was driven by Asia & Oceania which received 96% of world shipments. Deliveries to all other regions decreased. China remained the world’s largest investor with an 82%-share of total shipments. 

Finishing Machinery 
In the “fabrics continuous” segment, the number of shipped stenters increased by +22% from 1’833 units in 
2023 to 2’230 units in 2024. This number includes an estimate for the total number of stenters shipped by companies which have not participated to the ITMF survey. Participating companies reported mixed results for all other machines in this category (between a decrease of -53% for Dyeing – Line, CPB and an increase of +390% for Dyeing – Line, Hotflue). In the “fabrics discontinuous” segment, the number of “jigger dyeing / beam dyeing” shipped in 2024 dropped by -44% to 371 units. Deliveries of “air jet dyeing” and “overflow dyeing” rose by +18% to 907 units and 5% to 2’221 units, respectively. 

Source:

International Textile Manufacturers Federation

First polo shirt made from triple-recycled cellulose fiber Photo Thüringisches Institut für Textil- und Kunststoff-Forschung e.V.
17.06.2025

Expo 2025 in Osaka: First polo shirt made from triple-recycled cellulose fiber

At the world exhibition in Japan, the Thuringian research institute TITK Rudolstadt presented a polo shirt made from triple-recycled cellulose fiber. The fiber used is also TITK's innovation Lyohemp® – the first Lyocell fiber made from hemp pulp.

At the world exhibition in Japan, the Thuringian research institute TITK Rudolstadt presented a polo shirt made from triple-recycled cellulose fiber. The fiber used is also TITK's innovation Lyohemp® – the first Lyocell fiber made from hemp pulp.

TITK's managing director, Benjamin Redlingshöfer, wore the polo shirt at the Expo in Osaka on June 17. During the Thuringia Country Days, he was interviewed on stage by presenter Marco Schreyl. Redlingshöfer proudly showed off his polo shirt with the “300% Recycling” print. This means that the shirt is made from a fiber that has undergone three consecutive recycling processes for the first time. And it did so so well that it could be easily processed into a fashionable polo shirt with excellent wearing comfort. “With our 300% recycled fiber, we are demonstrating that closed textile recycling loops are feasible thanks to our technology,” says Redlingshöfer. “This innovation proves that we can take recycling in the textile industry to a whole new level.” 

When textiles are recycled at all, it often involves what is known as downcycling. This means that the originally high-quality textile fibers are used to manufacture lower-quality textile products as part of material recycling. The fiber-to-fiber recycling pursued at TITK, however, aims to produce a recycled fiber from a high-quality textile fiber with the same high level of quality and the same good usage properties. But even in these recycling loops, only 20 to 40 percent of recycled materials are often mixed with a larger proportion of virgin grade material. 

“TITK has now impressively demonstrated that not only is 100 percent recycling of cellulose fibers possible, but that this process can even be used three times in a row without compromising the desired characteristics of the fiber, such as a pleasant, soft feel, a slight sheen, and very good, uniform dyeability,” says Redlingshöfer. 

Recycling process also applicable to cotton
The result is a fully-fledged, sustainable product that now sets the standard for future recycling processes in the clothing industry. This will enable the consumption of new virgin-grade fibers to be drastically reduced in the future. This outstanding innovation was achieved thanks to a further adaptation of the very robust Lyocell process established at the institute – specifically in terms of pulp extraction and pretreatment, says Redlingshöfer. “In principle, this recycling loop can also be applied to cotton fibers as the raw material.” TITK invites industry partners to work together on the further development and implementation of these technologies. 

Under the banner of the Demonstration and Innovation Center for Textile Circular Economy (DICE), which was founded at the Rudolstadt institute and is currently under construction, developments in the holistic recycling of textiles are already being driven forward. TITK researchers are now transferring findings from the Lyohemp® recycling project to so-called polycotton textiles, whereby the two material streams of synthetic and cellulosic fibers are additionally separated in order to then recombine them into a material quality suitable for fiber spinning (fiber-to-fiber recycling).

“However,” adds the institute director, “we cannot rely solely on technological solutions to absolve us of our responsibility to use our resources responsibly.” For good reason, the RRR rule often cited in the circular economy has two additional Rs before recycling: reduce and reuse – in other words, consume less and reuse more. Redlingshöfer: “Only in combination with a more conscious use of our raw materials will we be able to make a significant contribution to practical sustainability.” 

Source:

Thüringisches Institut für Textil- und Kunststoff-Forschung e.V.