For the second quarter of 2015, overall orders for Italian textile machinery recorded a 15 per cent increase over the same period of last year.
An Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) press release informed that exports also surged higher at 21 per cent over the same quarter of 2014, marking a fourth consecutive period of growth.
Domestic orders have however, risen slower at 7 per cent in the second quarter of 2015 as against the prior year second quarter, which ACIMIT attributed to sure signs of a recovery.
“Orders for textile machinery for the second quarter of 2015 confirm the positive trend already under way during the first three months of the year,” Raffaella Carabelli, president of ACIMIT.
“Increased orders on the domestic market are an unexpected but welcome development, a good omen for ITMA 2015,” she added.
“This growth for the Italian market is somewhat unexpected and it is highly likely that the incentives implemented by the Government may have contributed to this light recovery in our sector,” she noted.
“The recovery of our domestic market is certainly a good omen for ITMA, where 450 Italian exhibitors will be present or 27 per cent of the total number of companies participating at ITMA,” Carabelli observed.
As for foreign markets, official data from ISTAT confirmed a recovery for the first four months of 2015 year in various textile machinery importing countries.
According to ISTAT data, in the first four months of 2015, exports of textile machinery to India rose 6 per cent over the first quarter of 2014.
“Exports to Bangladesh in the same period zoomed 187 per cent, with EU markets also appearing to show good form,” ACIMIT stated.
“We are waiting for a recovery from China, where investments in machinery are still low compared to a year ago,” Carabelli also stated.
“For years, Iran was a benchmark for Italy's textile machinery industry, but sanctions have effectively halted the flow of machinery exports towards Iran, penalising many Italian manufacturers,” ACIMIT too added.
“The recent agreement on the nuclear issue opens up a window for a recovery in investments by Iran's textile sector, after years in which the process of industry modernisation was slowed by sanctions,” it too noted.
