In the first half of 2026, textile machinery enterprises above designated size achieved double-digit growth in industrial value-added, while the average growth of the entire textile industry was only 3.3%. This gap suggests that equipment manufacturing is becoming the first segment to rebound in the supply chain, reflecting the initial benefits of equipment renewal and digital transformation in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Background
According to the semi-annual economic report released by the China National Textile and Apparel Council, the operating rate of textile machinery companies has steadily recovered, with leading enterprises seeing full order books and improved delivery efficiency both domestically and internationally. Notably, this recovery is not broad-based but shows clear structural divergence: the spinning machinery segment performed best, with strong demand for intelligent complete sets such as ring spinning, air-jet spinning, and rotor spinning. Domestic cotton spinning enterprises' intelligent upgrades, coupled with capacity expansion in Xinjiang and other central-western clusters, created dual purchasing drivers. In contrast, the weaving machinery market is polarized: high-end air-jet looms and special fiber equipment are favored, while demand for traditional general-purpose models declines. Chemical fiber machinery, knitting machinery, and dyeing and finishing equipment remain in a slow repair phase, with downstream investment attitudes cautious.
Industry Impact
In foreign trade, domestic textile machinery continues to expand market share in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, leveraging cost-performance advantages, with spinning and weaving equipment exports particularly strong. This implies that global supply chain restructuring offers structural opportunities for domestic enterprises, but also requires a shift from simple equipment sales to technology export and localized service support. On the profitability front, fluctuations in raw material prices such as steel and motors directly raise manufacturing costs, while price wars in low-end segments squeeze profit margins. More critically, downstream textile enterprises have limited willingness to expand capacity, making investment decisions cautious. This determines that the sustainability of the machinery industry's recovery relies on equipment renewal cycles rather than new capacity additions.