Sales of computerised flat
knitting machines to China to grow
by more than 300% in 2010.
Billy Hunter reports
from Shanghai
25 June 2010, Shanghai –
As the second ITMA ASIA + CITME
draws to a close here, the big story is the almost incredible explosion
in the sales
of computerised flat knitting machines in China. Machine builders are
reporting
staggering and unparalleled market growth as hand flat knitting machines
are
replaced due to rising labour costs in the country.
In recent years total annual global shipments of
computerised flat knitting machines have reached around the 20,000 per
annum
mark, with the market leaders Germany’s Stoll and Japan’s Shima Seiki
collectively
taking an average market share of 75% annually. Global shipments in 2009
were
in fact down 12% to 17,840.*
Chinese manufacturer to
produce 30,000 machines in 2010
However, reports of enormous numbers of machines being sold in
China have been confirmed here by various manufacturers with one Chinese
company
claiming it will produce 30,000 machines this year alone and two other
Chinese
companies claiming that they are producing 1000 machines each per month
each. We
also interviewed another company who claimed to be building 600 machines
per
month and yet another which said it was producing 300 machines per
month.
All of the four companies mentioned above are said to have full
order books for 2010 and if the figures are to believed this would put
their
combined sales at an astounding 64,800 machines for 2010. Add to this a
conservative
estimate of 15,000 machines collectively manufactured by Shima Seiki and
Stoll for
2010 and the total becomes 79,800 machines. An astounding increase of
62,000 machines
from 2009 or an unbelievable uplift of 363% year on year.
The above figures exclude all other flat knitting machine
manufacturers
and we interviewed a number of other companies who claimed to be
building
150-200 machines per month each. Rumours have abounded that the market
could
reach a staggering 100,000 machines per year. Although this is difficult
to believe,
nobody seems to know exactly how many hand flat knitting machines there
are in China
and so the potential annual growth in sales is difficult to calculate.
Chinese manufacturer
now world's largest producer
Rumours had been circulating here that leading Chinese flat
machine builder Ningbo Yuren Knitting Machine Co. Ltd, which has bought
the
Steiger flat knitting machine brand from Italy’s ITEMA Group, had
manufactured
16,000 machines last year alone and could build as many as 40,000
machines this
year.
This would of course mean an incredible expansion in
manufacturing capacity, so we interviewed one of the company’s key
executives to
get the inside story. We learned that the company had in fact
manufactured
12,000 computerised flat knitting machines last year and with a
breathtaking
monthly capacity of 3700 machines says it will produce at least 30,000
of its
Cixing brand computerised flat knitting machines in 2010. If the figures
can be verified, this means that Cixing is now the world's largest
manufacturer of flat knitting machines by volume, by a long way.
Of course all of the above claims need to be verified by
independent sources in due course but it is clear that an unprecedented
boom is
taking place due to hand flat replacement.
Part 2 to follow soon.
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*International
Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) 2009
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