Review The Economic Operation Of Textile Machinery Industry In 2024

In 2024, the global economy will continue to recover slowly under multiple challenges, the inflation level will continue to fall, and the trade and investment will recover at a low level. Although the geopolitical situation will continue to be tense, the trade fragmentation will increase, and the monetary policy of major economies will change, and other factors will increase the uncertainty, the world economic growth will remain stable on the whole; The domestic economy is generally stable and making progress while maintaining stability. The new momentum has accumulated momentum, the traditional momentum has been renewed and upgraded, and market confidence has been significantly improved. In the face of the complexity of the external environment, the textile machinery industry remained stable throughout the year. The main economic indicators maintained a growth trend compared with last year, but the growth rate gradually slowed down. The industry's exports showed a warming trend and achieved positive growth throughout the year. In each segment of textile machinery industry, compared with the same period last year, the sales of knitting machinery, weaving machinery and printing and dyeing machinery were growing, spinning machinery fell back, chemical fiber machinery products sales differentiated significantly, and nonwoven machinery sales gradually recovered and remained stable.

　　 01 Operation quality and efficiency

　　 The industry revenue and profit continued to grow. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2024, the total assets of national textile machinery enterprises above designated size will increase by 3.62% year on year, and the industry's operating income will increase by 7.84% year on year, 8.31 percentage points higher than that in 2023. Since 2024, China's textile machinery industry has shown a restorative growth trend against the background of stable macroeconomic growth. Although the growth of some indicators slowed down due to the weakening of the low base effect, the industry still maintained a steady pace of development.

　　 The operating efficiency of the industry is good. In 2024, the total profit of the industry will increase by 9.36% year on year. Due to the base, the profit growth will gradually narrow, but the industry's average revenue profit margin will be 7.48%, which will remain above 7% throughout the year, at a high level in recent years. The loss amount of loss making enterprises decreased by 25.55% year on year, and the loss area was 15.63%, 0.87 percentage points lower than that in 2023.

　　 The increase of industry cost is less than the decrease of revenue, and the proportion of three fees is reduced. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2024, the total cost of textile machinery enterprises above designated size increased by 7.16% year on year. The operating cost increased by 8.06% year on year, accounting for 90.35% of the total cost; The proportion of three fees in the whole industry was 9.65%, a decrease of 0.88 percentage points compared with the same period last year, of which: sales expenses increased by 2.25% year on year, accounting for 3.57% of the total cost; Management expenses increased by 2.25% year on year, accounting for 5.65% of the total cost; Financial expenses decreased by 23.85% year on year, accounting for 0.43% of the total cost.

　　 The asset liability ratio of the industry increased. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2024, the total assets of textile machinery enterprises above designated size will increase by 3.62% year on year, the liabilities will increase by 5.53% year on year, and the asset liability ratio will be 57.91%, 1.27 percentage points more than that of 2023, higher than the asset liability ratio of industrial enterprises above designated size of 57.5%.

　　 The pressure of trade receivables and finished goods inventory increased. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2024, the accounts receivable of textile machinery enterprises above designated size will increase by 17.91% year on year, and the inventory of finished products will increase by 18.69% year on year.

　　 Survey of industrial enterprises

The Textile Machinery Association conducted an investigation on the operation of 124 textile machinery enterprises in 2024. From the summary results, the overall operating pressure of the enterprise in 2024 has improved compared with the first three quarters. According to the survey, 59% of the enterprises' revenue exceeded the same period last year, 46.5% of the enterprises' profits increased compared with the same period last year, 36.9% of the enterprises' orders in hand exceeded the same period last year, and 58.2% of the enterprises' capacity utilization rate was more than 80%. At present, the primary problems faced by enterprises are insufficient domestic market demand, excessive price competition and rising production costs. Although the industry continues to be under pressure, the industry situation in 2024 is still better than expected in the third quarter.

02 Import and export situation

According to customs statistics, from January to December 2024, China's textile machinery imports and exports totaled 7.026 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 6.31%. Among them, the import of textile machinery was 2.34 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 21.04%; Exports reached US $4.686 billion, up 3.31% year on year.

　　 Import of textile machinery

From January to December 2024, China imported textile machinery from 67 countries and regions, with a total import volume of US $2.34 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 21.04%, slightly narrowing the decline compared with the first three quarters.

In terms of the category of imported products, the total import volume of auxiliary devices and spare parts ranked first, with a total import volume of 695 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 0.05%, accounting for 29.72% of the total import volume; The seven major categories of products increased by two and decreased by five. Spinning machinery and weaving machinery continued to maintain growth. Among other major categories of products, chemical fiber machinery continued to decline the most. Affected by the slowdown of downstream capacity growth, the import amount of chemical fiber machinery decreased significantly.

From January to December 2024, Japan, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland are the main countries and regions importing textile machinery. The top five import trade volume is US $1.897 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 23.61%, accounting for 81.08% of the total import volume. Japan continued to rank first among importing countries and regions, but the amount declined year-on-year. Imports from France increased by 20.62% year on year, mainly due to the sharp increase in the amount of imported auxiliary devices, spare parts and printing and dyeing finishing machinery. It is the only country among the top five countries with a year-on-year increase in the amount of imports.

　　 Export of textile machinery

From January to December 2024, China exported textile machinery to 202 countries and regions totaling US $4.686 billion, up 3.31% year on year. Since October, the export amount has continued to grow year on year, and the growth rate has continued to increase.

From January to December 2024, the customs counted the export of textile machinery by categories. The export of knitting machinery was 1.449 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 21.31%, accounting for 30.93%, ranking first. Seven categories of products rose three times and fell four times. Among them, the export of spinning machinery declined significantly, and the export of knitting machinery, printing and dyeing finishing machinery and nonwovens machinery realized positive growth.

From January to December 2024, the total amount of exports to India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey accounted for 56.56% of the total export amount, with a year-on-year growth of 9.70%. It is a major country and region in China's textile machinery export.

　　 03 Prospect of industry situation

Looking forward to 2025, the process of global economic recovery will still face multiple tests. Although the global inflation pressure is slowing down, the external risks such as geopolitical conflicts, rising trade protectionism, and fluctuations in demand in emerging markets are still prominent. The restructuring of the global supply chain and the "nearshore" and "back to shore" policies of the United States and Europe may further squeeze the space of China's textile industry, and tariff barriers may accelerate the pressure of industrial chain relocation. In addition, problems such as insufficient domestic demand, homogenized competition, shrinking orders of some small and medium-sized enterprises and fluctuations in raw material prices still restrict the recovery of industry profits.

However, the fundamentals of China's economy have remained unchanged for a long time, and macro policy synergy has injected certainty support into the industry. With the implementation of the National Development and Reform Commission's "Four Afterburner" policy, policy dividends will continue to be transformed into the driving force of industry development. At the central economic work conference held at the end of 2024, it was clear that the precise coordination of the implementation of "more active fiscal policy+moderately loose monetary policy" in 2025 will activate the vitality of the super large market. Leading indicators such as the rise of PMI volatility in the manufacturing industry and the steady growth of industrial added value have released signals of economic recovery, and the effects of the "two new" and "double" policies have been deepened, The demand for intelligent transformation and green upgrading of textile machinery is expected to accelerate release. In terms of technological innovation, the deep integration of artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and new material research and development will promote the leap of equipment intelligence, and the deepening of low-carbon recycling technology application will further consolidate international competitiveness. In terms of international market layout, enterprises are expanding in emerging markets through the "Belt and Road" and the "Three Global Initiatives", and are gradually building a diversified export pattern to effectively hedge the risk of traditional market contraction.

To sum up, in 2025, although the textile machinery industry will face a complex and changeable external environment, relying on policy escort, domestic demand resilience and innovation drive, the industry will continue to transform to high-end, intelligent and green directions. On the one hand, the global industrial chain restructuring will accelerate the practice and process of coordinated development of the textile machinery industry at home and abroad, On the other hand, the new demand of the textile market in China and surrounding countries and regions will open another window for the textile machinery industry to complete its own transformation, transformation and upgrading. The basic foundation for high-quality development of the textile machinery industry is still stable, and the space for industry development is still broad.

(Source: China Textile Machinery Association)