ITMF (International Textile Manufacturers Federation has published the International Textile Industry Statistics (ITIS) on productive capacity and raw material consumption in the short-staple organized (spinning mill-) sector in virtually all textile-producing countries in the world.
The global number of installed short-staple spindles remained stable in 2020 at 221 mn units (see Fig. 1). The number of installed open-end rotors slightly decreased from 7.4 mn in 2019 to 7.2 mn in 2020 (see Fig. 2). The decreasing trends observed in both segments in previous years (mainly due to scrapping of outdated machinery in China) seem to have come to an end. The tendencies observed in other regions are stable. The number of installed air-jet spindles increased in 2020 in all regions except in Europe, East and Europe, West.
The substitution between shuttle and shuttleless looms continued in 2020 but the number of installed shuttleless looms has shrunk for the first time from 1.68 mn in 2019 to 1.64 in 2020 (see Fig. 3). Total raw material consumption in the short-staple organized sector has sharply decreased from 46 mn tonnes in 2019 to 41 mn tonnes in 2020 (see Fig. 4). Consumption of raw cotton, synthetic, and cellulosic short-staple fibres decreased by -12 percent, -14 percent, and -9 percent, respectively. This effect mainly reflects the reduced levels of production during the COVID-19 pandemic.
