Global textile machinery shipments weakened across most segments in 2025, with only spinning recording growth.
Short-staple spindles and open-end rotors rose as Asian investment, led by China and India, remained resilient.
Weaving, knitting and texturing machinery posted sharp declines, signalling cautious capacity expansion, while finishing machinery showed modest improvement overall.
Spinning machinery
The total number of shipped short-staple spindles increased by 195K units in 2025 to a level of 6.11 million (see Graph 1). Most of the new shipments went to Asia & Oceania (95%) where deliveries grew by 8.5% compared to 2024. Shipment to Africa, Europe (incl. Türkiye), and South America decreased by -46%, -33%, and -19%, respectively. Deliveries only increased for destinations in North and Central America (+264% to 77K). The six largest investors in the short-staple segment were China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan.
645K open-end rotors were shipped worldwide in 20254. This represents about 50K units more than recorded in 2024. 94% of global shipments went to Asia & Oceania where deliveries increased by +9% to 607K. China, India, and Vietnam were the world’s 3 largest investors in rotors and saw increased investments of +4%, +12% and +17%, respectively. Deliveries increased in all major destination countries except for Türkiye and Bangladesh, the 6th and 7th largest destinations in 2025, where shipment dropped by -78% and -55% compared to 2024.
Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles decreased to 90K units in 2025 (-31%). This negative effect was driven by suppressed deliveries to Asia and Oceania where 76K units were shipped, about 55% of 2023’s deliveries. 46% of total deliveries were shipped to China, 19% to India, and 16% to Iran.
Texturing machinery
Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyamide filaments) decreased by -21% from nearly 83K units in 2024 to 65K units in 2025. With a share of 97.6%, Asia & Oceania remained the strongest destination for single heater draw-texturing spindles in 2025. China, Indonesia, and Chinese Taipei were the 3 main investors in this segment with shares of global deliveries of 92%, 2%, and 1.4%, respectively.
In the category of double heater draw-texturing spindles (mainly used for polyester filaments), global shipments decreased by -22% to a level of 743K units. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments remained at 98% and China continued to be the world’s largest investor, accounting for 93% of global shipments.
Weaving machinery
In 2025, global shipments of shuttle-less looms decreased by -27.5% to 164K units. Deliveries in all categories decreased. Air-jet looms dropped by -6%, rapier and projectile looms by -18%, and water-jet looms by -38% to 54.6K, 20.5K and 88.5K, respectively. The main destination for shuttle-less looms was Asia & Oceania with 95% of worldwide deliveries. 98%, 89%, and 98% of global air-jet, rapier/projectile, and water-jet looms were shipped to the region, respectively. The main investor in air-jet and water-jet looms was China (see Graph 2), where shipment decreased by -32% (air-jet) and -57% (water-jet). The main investor in Rapier and projectile looms was India, with a 21% increase in deliveries in 2025.
Circular & flat knitting machinery
Global shipments of large circular knitting machines decreased by -13% to 24.5K units in 2025. Asia & Oceania was the world’s leading investor in this category with 86% of global shipments. China was the favoured destination with 53% of all deliveries (11.7K units), an increase of +9% compared to 2024. India and Vietnam ranked second and third destinations with 4.1K and 1.8K shipped units, respectively.
The number of shipped electronic flat knitting machines decreased by -21% to 106K machines in 2025. The fall was driven by Asia & Oceania, which received 93% of world shipments, despite ordering 24% less machines compared to 2024. Deliveries to all other regions increased. China remained the world’s largest investor with an 66%-share of total shipments.
Finishing machinery
In the “fabrics continuous” segment, the number of shipped stenters increased by +3% from 2.2K units in 2024 to 2.3K units in 2025. This number includes an estimate for the total number of stenters shipped by companies which have not participated to the ITMF survey. Participating companies reported mixed results for all other machines in this category (decrease of -75% for Singeing lines and an increase of +24% for Mercerizing lines). In the “fabrics discontinuous” segment, the number of “Overflow Dyeing” shipped in 2025 increased by -30% to 2.9K units. Deliveries of “air jet dyeing” and “Jigger Dyeing / Beam Dyeing” dropped by -0.6% to 902 units and 28% to 269 units, respectively.
Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (MS)
