China becomes largest market for German textile machinery

German manufacturers of textile machinery succeeded in increasing their exports during the first three quarters of 2001. Exports during this period increased by 3.3% compared to the same three quarters of the previous year to almost 2.7 billion euro.

Exports of spinning machinery grew by about 15%, along with those of weaving machines by more than 20%.

The ranking of markets also showed some changes. U.S. fell to second as it was overtaken by China, which ranked fourth in 2000. Exports to China more than doubled to 342 million euro, followed by Italy, Turkey and Brazil. Exports also sharply increased to the Czech Republic (94 million euro (up 47%), rising from thirteenth to sixth in ranking), Hong Kong (83 million euro (up 26%), from eleventh to seventh), and India (81 million euro (up 27%), from fourteenth to eighth).

Business is expected to revitalize from the middle of 2002. Especially, the markets of Central and Eastern Europe as well as Asia offer good growth opportunities. Exports to these markets have contributed considerably to the results of the first nine months by far more than 30% each.