ITMF Released The 2012 Edition of Its Biennial International Production Cost Comparison

ZURICH, Switzerland — December 2012 — The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) has released the 2012 edition of its biennial International Production Cost Comparison - the only consolidated source for benchmarking the yarn and fabric production costs prevailing in 9 of the world's most important textile manufacturing countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Turkey and the USA. 

The report is designed to highlight the implications of the ever-increasing capital intensity of the primary textile industry, by tracing the impact of cost factors borne by manufacturers and presenting them on a standardised basis. This allows the reader to readily compare elements of total manufacturing costs across representative production facilities. 

The presentation of manufacturing and total yarn and fabric costs incorporates a detailed breakdown into the various cost components per kilogram of yarn and per meter of fabric, showing their relative importance and influence in the countries under review. 

The International Production Cost Comparison incorporates a wide range of cost factors, from externally-determined factors like raw material and machinery prices through to the local prices of labour, energy, water, capital, and many other inputs to production. 

The textile industry segments analysed are Spinning, Texturing, Weaving and Knitting, and individual results are supplied for ring-spun, o-e, and textured yarns, and for fabrics woven and knitted from each of these yarn types. 

Manufacturing costs covered in the report are based on parameters specified by the textile machinery companies Rieter, Oerlikon Barmag, Picanol and Mayer & Cie., and thus the representative cost structure for each country is derived from both "bottom-up" (investment analysis) and "top-down" (surveyed) standpoints. While not attempting to exhaustively explain the final sales price of yarns and fabrics, the International Production Cost Comparison nonetheless provides a unique basis for considering variations in international costs on a technically robust, yet accessible, foundation.