The global business situation in the textile value chain deteriorated further in May 2023 (see Graph 1) and hit a new low at -36 percentage points (pp). Across the board companies are currently struggling with a poor order intake on the one hand and rising production costs on the other. The industry is faced with the ingredients of a “perfect storm”. The majority of global textile value chain is expecting this current scenario to last until the end of 2023 (see Graph 2). Since the beginning of the year business expectations have been back to positive territory. While in November 2022 they were still at -10 pp, they reached +22 pp in March. In May they fell slightly back to +18 pp. At the same time, companies’ expectation for the business climate in 6 months-times have been improving since November 2022. It is unclear if this growing optimism about the mid-term future is due to a believe that the situation cannot get much worse or anticipation for a well-founded economic normalisation.
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