Under the background of China's economic slowdown and shrinking demand on both domestic and global markets, China's textile machinery industry maintained steady development thanks to its major efforts made to promoting textile machinery products to the higher end of the value-added chain through readjusting industry and product structures and adopting new process and new technologies.

In January-November of 2015, the textile machinery industry earned prime operating revenue of CNY 106.32 billion, up 3.63% year-on-year; the total assets amounted to near CNY 101.26 billion, up 3.21%; it generated total profits of CNY 6.35 billion, up 3.84%; 15.94% of the enterprises operated in red with a total deficit of CNY 833 million, up 45.48% year-on-year.

In the same period, the industry's fixed-assets investment dipped 0.98% to CNY 25.14 billion. The number of newly-launched projects increased 5.21% to 343. The textile machinery industry accounts for 2.32% of the textile industry's total fixed-assets investment.

According to the General Administration of Customs, China's import and export of textile machinery in the first eleven months of 2015 totaled US$ 5.48 billion, down 15.03% from a year earlier. The export stood at about US$ 2.82 billion, down 0.53%; the import amounted to US$ 2.665 billion, down 26.36%, with a trade surplus of US$ 151 million.

The 0.53-percent drop in January-November represents that the export of textile machinery saw decline for the first time in 2015. The export of knitting machinery amounted to US$ 831 million, up 8.33% year-on-year, accounting for 29.51% of the total, ranking the first place; this is followed by auxiliary equipment & spare parts, printing, dyeing & finishing machinery, weaving machinery, spinning machinery, chemical fiber machinery and nonwoven machinery. The export of spinning machinery and auxiliary equipment & spare parts presented negative growth, in which, the export of spinning machinery saw significant decline.

In January-November, China exported textile machinery and accessories to 176 countries and regions. The top five destinations are India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan, who cover 54.94% of the total. The export to India amounted to US$ 573 million, up 17.84% year-on-year, accounting for 20.36% of the total export in value term. The export to Indonesia presented negative year-on-year growth.

Meanwhile, China imported textile machinery and accessories from 62 countries and regions with the total import amounting to US$ 2.665 billion, down 26.36% from a year earlier. Product category-wise, the import of spinning machinery occupied the first place, amounted to US$ 520 million, down 14.91%, making up 19.50% of the total. The import of all seven major categories of products saw negative growth, with the decline of chemical fiber machinery, weaving machinery and nonwoven machinery larger than the industry's average level.

China's imported textile machinery mainly came from Germany, Japan, Italy, Taiwan and Belgium. The import from these suppliers amounted to US$ 2.20 billion, down 27.06% from a year earlier, covering 82.72% of the total import. Germany is the No. 1 supplier, with the import from whom amounting to US$ 1.086 billion, down 15.33%.

In 2015, the textile machinery industry experienced strong competition on market; the development of different sectors was unbalanced; the overall economic operation of the industry saw moderate growth; investment grew at a slower pace; the total export for the first time outpaced the import, but the growth in export presented a downward trend.

As both China's macro economy and the textile economy are subject to further restructuring, the textile machinery industry will still face the challenges of withering domestic demand, rising costs and exchange rate fluctuations in 2016. Nevertheless, local-made textile machinery, with their practical functions and high price/performance ratio, will continuously satisfy the need of domestic industrial and technical revolution and the "Belt and Road" strategy is expected to bring more opportunities to Chinese textile machinery manufacturers.