The worldwide economic slowdown is reflected in the slowdown of garment and leather machinery uptake according to VDMA (a German engineering federation) reporting a decrease of 23% in real terms in September 2012, as compared to September 2011. A sub-industry analyses of the figures show that sewing and garment machinery witnessed a decrease in 33% of sales from January to September. Machinery for the shoe and leather industry also observed a 29% decrease in the same period.
However, the dismal performance is expected to come to an end. “Considerable structural changes in China, as well as shorter response times are making production sites relocate closer to the end consumer. There is a shift towards flexible manufacturing process combined with resource conservation and increasing productivity, which are benefiting German technology manufacturers,” said Elgar Straub, Managing Director of the Garment and Leather Technology Trade Association within the VDMA.
VDMA, the Garment and Leather Technology Association encompasses sewing and garment machinery, shoe and leather technology, laundry and textile cleaning machinery and machinery for processing technical textiles. In 2011, the volume of production had stood at Euro 510 million.
Trade association’s Chairman Tilo Ullmer expressed, “Positive developments have already been reported at the JIAM trade fair in Osaka and at SIMAC in Bologna. German manufacturers of sewing and garment machinery are also pinning their hopes on further positive impulses from Texprocess, the international leading textile technology trade fair, which will be taking place next June in Frankfurt. Texprocess can give the industry the missing boost and we may expect a 4% increase in the turnover for 2013.”
