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| Issue date:23/08/2010 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Aug 2010 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
| by Staff Reporters |
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| The prime issue in this year's ITMA Asia + CITME is resource-efficient production as demand for green textiles is on the increase and textile mills are facing the rising costs of resources, oil, gas, electricity and water. |
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| Fast facts: ITMA Asia+CITME 2010 |
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The biggest European participating groups of the show, German and Italian textile machinery manufacturers stressed the importance of providing customers with the solutions that meet their production needs, which today revolve around cleaner production and resource-efficiency.
Textile mills are looking for efficient machines, which allow them to maintain the level of productivity without negative effects on the production costs or to the environment.
According to a study conducted by the textile division of the German machinery association, VDMA, with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants last year, different optimization levers contribute to the efficiency in energy, materials and other resources in the next 10 years.
It was found that by optimizing the production process, the efficiency could be increased by as much as 27%. Ranking second is the optimization of system control (23%), followed by the optimization of design (21%), substitution of sub-systems (14%), optimization of materials (13%) and others (2%).
Managing Director of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association, Thomas Waldmann, points out that the expense factors in a product lifecycle include the costs for acquisition, installation and start-up, while many costs are often not transparent at first glance, such as the costs for maintenance, service and repair - but also for energy and operating, the influence on costs for raw materials like fibers and yarns and the production waste, environmental costs (for certificates and special filters), costs for unscheduled repair, disposal, staff and so on.
The China market and other countries in Asia continue to be the main areas for allocating marketing efforts for the textile machinery producers.
Top six markets for the German textile machinery industry in 2009 (Source: Federal Statistical Office, VDMA Textile Machinery Association) |
In addition, the VDMA survey at which 43 German exhibitors participated showed the following results with regard to visitors: Every third exhibition visitor was a company owner while 52% were classified middle management, which makes the quality of visitors generally high. The strongest visitor group was the Chinese one with 30% but the German booths were also frequented from visitors from major Asian countries. On average the German companies estimated that the strongest visitor groups apart of the Chinese came from India (9%), Pakistan (9%), Japan (5%), Bangladesh (5%), Indonesia (5%), Germany (4%), Iran (4%) and more.
Fast facts: ITMA Asia+CITME 2010
• Visitorship over 82,000
• Over 20% of the visitors from overseas, mainly from India, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea and elsewhere
• 1,171 exhibitors
• Over 100,000 sqm of gross exhibition area
• China occupied 31,000 sqm of net exhibit space, Germany 5,000 sqm net, Italy 4,000 sqm net, China Taiwan 3,500 sqm net, and Japan 3,300 sqm net.
• Next show in Shanghai from June 12-16, 2012
Source: Organisers of ITMA Asia+CITME
European machinery makers lead in green efforts
ACIMIT emphasizes Italian sustainable technologies at the fair |
In view of the increasing demand for green textiles in the market, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT), initiated a green tag to help Italian textile machinery suppliers to differentiate their products in the market.
Maurizio Forte, Italian Trade Commissioner in Shanghai, comments that China market for Italian textile technology has a promising future as Chinese end users, encouraged by government policies, are continuing to invest on the high-end, energy-saving, and high efficient textile machinery, whose demand is not yet satisfied by domestic machinery manufacturers.
“The second edition of ITMA Asia + CITME …confirmed the recovery under way in the world’s primary textile manufacturing markets,” said Sandro Salmoiraghi, President of ACIMIT.
“Our exports to Asia for the first three months of the year grew 41% compared to 2009,” he said, adding that the Chinese market is moving rapidly and pays attention to the major themes presented at the trade fair, including sustainability, reducing its carbon footprint, and the reutilization of textile waste products.
Members of the French Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (UCMTF) also presented their ecologically sound and unique textile machinery at the exhibition, in particular those for energy savings.
Bruno Ameline |
For Bruno Ameline, UCMTF President, energy savings are not just a fashion but a real “must” both from ethical and economic points of views. He adds that the responsibility of the machinery manufacturers is not to influence the consumption of end products but to reduce significantly the energy necessary for the production level set by the market. For many years now, this idea has been embedded in the manufacturers’ strategies. They report that their customers appreciate this approach and compare very precisely the investment costs with the financial returns of the energy savings.
Evelyne Cholet, UCMTF Secretary General, adds that the machinery manufacturers’ customers i.e. the textile producers of apparel, home textiles and technical textiles are extremely sensitive to energy savings all over the world even though the price of energy is quite different from one country to another and that the economics depends on the relative prices of manpower, energy and investments costs. One thing is quite clear for her: “Durable development can only be achieved if the desire to be a good citizen is compatible with the returns on investments.”
Guarded optimism observed
Economic outlook was another popular topic at the exhibition.In the past two years, the global recession has hit the Swiss textile machinery industry and Swiss exports plunged by 60% within two years to a low never seen before, said Dr. Lukas Sigrist, Secretary General, Swissmem, Textile Machinery. However, in the second half of last year the downswing came to a standstill. Business resumed, first of all in the Asian markets and the number of incoming orders in the recent months is striking. In the first quarter of 2010, exports were up again by 34% year-on-year (thus referring to a low level), whereof the Asian markets had an impressive share of over 45%.
“Whereas the last two years saw the sector forced to drastically cut capacity, today it already finds itself facing bottlenecks again. These disproportionate swings call for extremely flexible organizational structures,” said Dr Sigrist, adding that industry players are holding an attitude of guarded optimism with expectations of stabilization.
A Chinese industry expert this June went further to warn for signs of overheating.
In view of the abrupt rebound, Vice Chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), Gao Yong, said that merchandisers might have predicted the appreciation of renminbi and tried to stock more goods before the rise in price.
“In the beginning of the year, there were more investments in different sectors, leading to price rise of cotton and yarns. The cotton price is now at record high. However, the price of apparel has not gone up as much. This trend, to me, is rather illogical. I would think that the middle- to low-end market may be overheating. Textile mills should not focus on enlarging production scale as a response to the present fast growth,” said Mr Gao.
The Chinese textile industry, which was relatively less affected by the global economic crisis, enjoyed a rapid progress in the first five months of this year. Textile and apparel exports from China increased by about 19% compared with the same period last year. During the same months, China’s domestic consumption of the products also rose 23%. All these positive developments have helped boost the sale of textile machines.
Mr Gao said that the trend was to invest in machines of high automation, low-carbon emissions and energy efficient. “There is heightened awareness of saving energy and reducing emissions,” he said. “The requirements of machinery today are very different from the past five to 10 years. In addition to high speed and high capacity, there are also the requirements of flexibility - the machine needs to be able to process different types of fibres, use less energy, with high degree of automation.”
Mr Gao said that China would soon bid farewell to the era of low-cost labour. With less involvement of human labor, more machine intelligence will come into play in the future.
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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