Leading Global Export Share
In 2004, Germany was once again the largest exporter of textile machinery with 30% of exports to the leading supplying nations. More than 96% of the national output (3.74 billion Euro) of textile machines were sold to customers in the international textile industry. The overall value of the supplied machines added up to 3.61 billion Euro, 5% less than the figure in 2003 (3.79 billion Euro). Spinning machines were the most important sector with an export volume of 828 million Euro, 15% less than in 2003 (972 million Euro). The weaving machinery manufacturers enhanced their exports clearly by 17% to 640 million Euro (2003:549 million Euro), reaching exactly the same level as the fabricators of knitting machinery (2003:738 million Euro).

Decisive for the excellent export performance of the German textile machinery industry was, beside others, the high technical precision of its products, the supply of customer-specific and tailor-made machines and a reliable after-sales-service. While Germany holds the top-position on the world market for meanwhile more than four decades, the main competitors Italy and Japan follow with a significant gap.

China-biggest market for German companies
China is the trading area No. 1 for the German companies in all branches. In 2004, the total German export volume to China amounted to 1.0 billion Euro. This shows very clearly, that the Chinese textile industry is no only modernizing its capacities with new machines but is also investing considerable in expansion and change. In the period under review particularly the manufacturers of weaving and of knitting machinery could increase their exports to China notably. For 2005, however, a clear downturn of demand from China is expected, due to a partial saturation of the market and a growing local supply of textile machines. The decline is supposed to be about 25 to 30%. Nevertheless, the country will remain the most relevant market for the German textile machinery industry in the foreseeable future.

Asia's market share rises continuously
Turkey was the second important market in 2004 (393 million Euro, -31%). The USA, for many years the premier market for German manufactures, has become less important in recent years. With exports of 256 million Euro (2003:277 million Euro, -8%) the United States were third in 2004, ahead of Italy with an increase of 25% and a total of 216 million Euro. The biggest increase in exports from a top ten textile country noted Pakistan, where sales rose by 50%. A doubling of sales was reported from Russia, the present number 16 in the German export-market-ranking.

With the shifting of the textile industry to Asia, the continent is continuously extending its position as most important buyer of textile equipment from Germany. Asia's export ratio increased from 43% (2003) to remarkable 48% in 2004. Beside China and Pakistan, India, Taiwan and Iran were vital customers. Parallel to the rise of Asia, traditional markets such as Europe and North America lose importance as purchasers of German textile machinery. In 2004, the aggregated export share of these two regions dropped from 47% (2003) to 43%.

Outlook
For 2005, a decrease of production in the German textile machinery industry of about 3% is foreseen. This is mainly the result of the development in China. In the first half of 2005 rising sales to India, Pakistan, Brazil and Iran could be compensate the relative downturn of the Chinese market. The added export volume to these four countries stood for only three quarters of the machines delivered to China, even after the current sharp slump in demand. Prospects for 2006 are more optimistic. Based on rising orders from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia an increasing production is expected in a range of about 4%.

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