The world's manufacturers of sewing and clothing equipment and technical textile machinery are embarking on the second edition of Texprocess, the leading international fair, which will be opening its doors in Frankfurt from 10 to 13 June.
"The sector is facing new challenges. And yet, increasing production costs, an enhanced awareness of sustainability and a constant reduction in the fashion cycles are raising the demand for new, future-pointing technologies", said Elgar Straub, General Manager of VDMA Garment and Leather Technology, at the press conference before the opening of Texprocess in Frankfurt.
"Texprocess offers manufacturers of sewing and clothing equipment a global platform for presenting their innovations before an international public right in the middle of one of the leading consumer markets", Straub continued.
Manufacturers from abroad are ordering German sewing and clothing equipment
In the first four months of 2013, the number of incoming orders in the German manufacturing industry for sewing and clothing equipment was, in real terms, 20 percent higher than the result for the previous year. Domestic business was down by 16.9 percent, whereas foreign business was up by 26 percent on the previous year.
Sales of German sewing and clothing equipment showed an increase of real 5.6 percent in the first four months of 2013, with orders from within Germany up by 0.1 percent and orders from abroad up by 6.2 percent. German manufacturers of sewing and clothing equipment were able to boost their exports by six percent from €384 million in 2011 to €406 million in 2012. On the other hand, the export volume of sewing and clothing equipment worldwide dropped by 1.6 percent from €4.53 billion in 2011 to € 4.46 billion.
In 2012, the main countries importing German sewing and clothing equipment were the USA, Turkey and the People's Republic of China. The USA moved up from third to first position, thus superseding Turkey as the most important market.
Industry Trends
Increases in wages and production and logistic costs, faster response times, and greater fashion-consciousness will lead to production plants being steadily moved closer to the consumer. Here the focus will be on markets such as Eastern Europe, North Africa and Latin America. A further trend is the growth in the integration of IT and automation in the manufacture of sewing and clothing equipment.
PLM and ERP systems, for example, support the entire value added chain of the clothing industry. Sustainability is also becoming increasingly important both in the clothing industry and among manufacturers of technical textiles. A growing awareness of the need to conserve resources and to improve efficiency, as well as a sense of corporate social responsibility, is a new challenge that the industry has to face.
To keep pace with this development, VDMA has developed the Blue Competence Initiative, the engineering industry's sustainability drive. With Blue Competence, manufacturers of sewing and clothing equipment can show that by means of constant innovation they can help to use energy more efficiently, conserve resources, reduce costs and increase productivity, despite reduced energy consumption. "At
