The worldwide textile industry’s order backlog, on average across all regions, reached its lowest level ever in March 2023, at 2.2 months. Since reaching a peak of 3.1 months a year ago, this indicator has been progressively declining. According to the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), expectations for the order backlog in six months are also decreasing rapidly.
Since the second quarter of 2022, order backlog has been decreasing along with order intake. According to the 19th ITMF Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS), which was performed in the second half of March 2023, this translates for textile machinery producers, for instance, into much less new textile machines ordered, and hence lower order backlog given machine types.
Additionally, it is a given that businesses have already cut back on their current capacity in some categories (such as spinners) or are in the process of doing so. This may also be the cause of the capacity utilisation rate’s rise since January 2023.
The three Asian areas’ order backlogs are comparable to the global average and are all on a little downward trend. Due to the strong concentration of manufacturers of textile machinery, whose average order backlog is nearly three times higher than that reported by other categories, it is significantly higher in Europe (including Turkiye). In North and Central America, order backlog was very substantial during the first half of 2022, and business conditions were excellent. It has since decreased from about 4-5 months to about 3 months.
At that point, the indicator appears to have reached a plateau. during recent surveys. South American respondents typically reported the smallest order backlog, which was 1.8 months on average and is now getting smaller. Only the continent of Africa saw a decrease in the order backlog in March 2023.
Regarding the segments, although from a very high level, the average order backlog for manufacturers of textile machines has been drastically declining since the middle of 2022. However, the backlog of orders is still quite large. With the exception of the makers of fibre and clothing, this negative trend is visible in all market segments. The latter’s order backlog somewhat increased. In March 2023, Spinners reported a decline in order backlog to 1.7 months, at a level similar to 2021, and as a result Significantly greater than it was in the extremely challenging year of 2022 (minimum order backlog reported in November of 2022 was 0.7 months).
