In 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, the overall operation of the textile machinery industry was stable and good, and the product orders of many enterprises maintained a good growth momentum. What are the reasons for the recovery of the textile machinery market? Can this market situation continue? What is the development focus of textile machinery enterprises in the future?
From the recent survey of enterprises and relevant statistical data, it is not difficult to see the current business situation and demand direction of textile machinery enterprises. At the same time, with the continuous promotion of the transformation and upgrading of the textile industry and the structural adjustment, the textile machinery market demand also presents new characteristics.
The growth of automation and intelligent equipment is obvious
Benefiting from the continuous recovery of the global economy, the stable growth of the domestic macro-economy, the overall stable operation of the textile industry and the recovery of the international and domestic textile market demand, the market situation of textile machinery equipment is generally good. From the perspective of the overall economic operation of the textile machinery industry, in 2017, the main business income and profit increased significantly, and the import and export trade volume showed a double-digit growth. After a small decline in 2015 and 2016, the export value of textile machinery products reached a record high in 2017.
From the perspective of equipment type, spinning machinery projects are concentrated in large enterprises with advantages, while small and medium-sized enterprises with weak market capacity have little opportunities. Automatic, continuous and intelligent spinning equipment increased significantly. According to the statistics of China Textile Machinery Association on key production enterprises, in 2017, nearly 4900 carding machines were sold, which was the same year on year; About 4100 drawing frames were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 14.6%. Among them, about 1850 drawing frames equipped with self leveling devices were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 21%, accounting for 45% of the total; More than 1200 combers were sold, which was the same year on year; More than 1500 roving frames were sold, with a year-on-year balance, of which about 280 were equipped with automatic doffing devices, with a year-on-year increase of 47%, accounting for 19% of the total; Cotton spinning frame sold more than 4.6 million spindles (of which about 1 million spindles were exported), with a year-on-year increase of 18%. Among them, long cars (equipped with collective doffing device) sold about 3 million spindles, with a year-on-year increase of 15%. Long cars accounted for 65% of the total. The main frame with cluster spinning device was about 1.9 million spindles, accounting for 41% of the total; The aggregate spinning device sold more than 5 million spindles, a slight increase over the previous year; The sales of rotor spinning machines was about 480000, with a year-on-year increase of 33%; More than 580 automatic winders were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 9.9%. In addition, in 2017, more than 30000 vortex spinning heads were added, and the domestic vortex spinning capacity was about 180000 heads.
Under the influence of industrial upgrading, strengthening environmental protection, transformation and elimination of old machines, the demand for high-speed rapier looms, water jet looms and air jet looms in weaving machinery has increased significantly. Customers put forward higher requirements on the adaptability, profitability and high speed of weaving machinery. In 2017, the main domestic manufacturers sold 7637 high-speed rapier looms, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%; 34000 water jet looms were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 13.3%; 13136 air-jet looms were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 72.8%.
The knitting machinery industry has risen steadily, and the flat knitting machine market has the most brilliant performance. According to the statistics of China Textile Machinery Association, the sales volume of flat knitting machines in 2017 was about 185000, with a year-on-year increase of more than 50%, of which the proportion of vamp machines increased. The market performance of circular weft machines was stable. The annual sales of circular weft machines was 21500, with a slight increase over the same period. The warp knitting machine market recovered, with sales of about 4100 sets in the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 41%.
The industrial demands of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, and labor reduction have brought challenges and business opportunities to printing and dyeing and finishing machinery enterprises. The market prospects of automatic and intelligent products such as digital production monitoring system, automatic sizing and automatic distribution system, energy-saving and emission reduction tenter setting machine, new continuous scouring and bleaching and washing equipment for knitted fabrics, and high-end gas-liquid dyeing machine are promising. The growth of air flow dyeing machines (including gas-liquid machines) is obvious, and the sales volume of most enterprises in 2017 increased by 20% compared with that in 2016. The key sample enterprises sold 57 flat screen printing machines in 2017, with a year-on-year increase of 8%; 184 round screen printing machines were sold, down 8% year on year; About 1700 tenter setting machines were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 6%.
Since 2017, the sales of chemical fiber machinery has improved in an all-round way, and the orders have increased significantly year on year. According to incomplete statistics, in 2017, the shipment of polyester and nylon filament spinning machines was about 7150 spindles, with a year-on-year increase of 55.43%; The orders of complete sets of polyester staple fiber equipment recovered, forming a capacity of nearly 130000 tons, with a year-on-year increase of about 8.33%; The complete set of viscose filament equipment has formed a certain capacity, and there are many orders for the complete set of viscose staple fiber equipment, with a capacity of 240000 tons; About 1200 high-speed ammunition dispensers were sold in the whole year, with a year-on-year increase of 54%. At the same time, the engineering capacity of chemical fiber filament production enterprises has been improved, and the investment in production automation has been significantly increased. For example, the market for automatic unwinding, packaging, storage and logistics of chemical fiber filament is better.
Driven by the strong demand of the downstream nonwoven industry, the production and sales of the nonwoven machinery industry have “blowout”. The sales volume of needling, spunlace and spunbond / spinning melt production lines reached the highest level in history. According to incomplete statistics of backbone enterprises, in 2017, there were about 320 needling lines sold, including nearly 50 lines with a width of more than 6 meters and more than 100 lines with a width of 3-6 meters; The sales of spunlace thread and spunbond and spinning melt composite production lines are more than 50; The market sales volume (including export) of spunbonded and spun melt composite production lines is more than 200 lines.
There is still room for domestic and foreign markets
The increase in the sales of intelligent and high-end textile machinery equipment reflects the higher requirements of the industrial structure adjustment, transformation and upgrading of the textile industry on the equipment manufacturing industry. Textile machinery enterprises comply with the development requirements of the textile industry, the industrial structure adjustment is more in-depth, the technology is constantly improving and innovating, and actively research and develop equipment with high production efficiency, good reliability and good system controllability is welcomed by the market.
Digital ink-jet printing has the characteristics of diversification, small batch and personalized customization. With the continuous improvement of technical level, the printing speed of high-speed digital printing machine has been close to that of flat screen printing, and the production cost has gradually decreased. Rich color expression, no restriction on spending, no need for plate making, especially in water saving, energy saving, improving the working environment, reducing labor intensity, increasing product added value and other aspects to meet the market demand, which has shown explosive growth in the global market in recent years. At present, the domestic digital printing equipment not only meets the domestic market demand, but also is welcomed by the overseas market with high cost performance.
In addition, with the acceleration of the international transfer of the textile industry and the acceleration of the international layout of domestic textile enterprises in recent years, the textile machinery export market is facing greater opportunities.
According to the statistical data of textile machinery export in 2017, among the major categories of textile machinery, the export volume and proportion of knitting machinery ranked first, with an export volume of 1.04 billion US dollars. The non-woven machinery grew the fastest, with an export volume of US $123 million, a year-on-year increase of 34.2%. The export of spinning equipment also increased by 24.73% compared with 2016.
Not long ago, the office of the United States trade representative published a list of proposed products for the 301 investigation on China, which covers most textile machinery products and parts. Regarding the impact of the US move, Wang Shutian, President of the China Textile Machinery Association, said that for enterprises, this move will increase the cost of Chinese enterprises entering the US market and damage the willingness of textile industry enterprises to further invest in the United States. However, as far as the industry is concerned, in China’s textile machinery exports, exports to the United States account for a small proportion and will not have a great impact.
Improving innovation ability and differentiation is the focus of development
Looking forward to the situation in 2018, the domestic textile machinery market will further release the demand for equipment updating and upgrading; In the international market, with the acceleration of the industrial transfer of the textile industry and the steady progress of China’s “the Belt and Road” initiative, the export space of China’s textile machinery products will be further opened, and the textile machinery industry will still be expected to achieve stable operation.
Although industry insiders and enterprises are optimistic about the situation in 2018, Wang Shutian still hopes that enterprises can soberly realize that there are still many shortcomings and difficulties in the development of the textile machinery industry: there is still a gap with the international advanced level in high-end equipment and technology; Enterprises are facing problems such as increasing costs, lack of talents and difficulty in recruiting workers.
Wang Shutian believes that in 2017, the import value of textile machinery again exceeded the export value, which shows that domestic textile equipment can not keep up with the upgrading pace of the textile industry, and there is still much room for development and improvement.
Taking spinning equipment as an example, according to the statistics of the customs, the total import volume of spinning machinery mainframe in 2017 was about 747 million US dollars, an increase of 42% year-on-year. Among the imported main machines, cotton roving frame, cotton spinning frame, wool spinning frame, air-jet vortex spinning machine, automatic winder, etc. increased significantly year on year. In particular, the import volume of air-jet vortex spinning machine increased by 85% year on year.
From the import data, it can be seen that domestic equipment with small market capacity, such as wool comber, roving frame and spinning frame, depends on import, which indicates that domestic textile machinery enterprises have less investment in research of equipment with small market capacity, and there is a big gap between China and foreign countries on the whole. The increase in the import of cotton roving frame and cotton spinning frame is mainly driven by the import of thick and thin winding. A large number of air-jet vortex spinning machines and tray type automatic winders are imported every year, indicating that such equipment is still a short board in China.
In addition, the import of nonwoven machinery increased the most. According to customs statistics, the total import of nonwoven machinery in 2017 was US $126 million, a year-on-year increase of 79.1%. Among them, the import of spunlace equipment and accessories increased nearly three times; 20 wide carding machines were imported. It can be seen that the phenomenon of high-speed and high-grade key equipment relying on imports is still quite obvious. Chemical fiber equipment still accounts for a large proportion of imported textile machinery and equipment. According to customs statistics, the total import of chemical fiber machinery in 2017 was US $400 million, a year-on-year increase of 67.9%.
Wang Shutian said that the improvement of innovation ability and differential development are still the focus of future development. This requires us to continue to do a good job in basic work, constantly carry out management, technology and product innovation, improve product grade and product quality, be down-to-earth and keep pace with the times. Only in this way can enterprises and industries develop continuously.
Post time: Aug-28-2018