China's textile machinery industry saw a continued decline in output and sales and a hefty slump in imports and exports in the first two months this year, according to data collected from 1009 textile machinery manufacturers surveyed by China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA).

From January to February, gross industrial output value of the industry reached 6.613 billion yuan ($968US.28 million), down 16.62 per cent from the previous year's period. Sales revenue dropped 10.65 per cent to 6.937 billion yuan.

Total profits of the industry plunged 77.38 per cent to 71.1 million yuan. 296 enterprises suffered losses, accounting for 29.34 per cent of the total. Losses amounted to 247 million yuan, 94.25 per cent higher than a year earlier. Profit ratio of production lost 2.89 percentage points to 1.07 per cent. Profit ratio of sales was only 4.15 per cent, with profit per capita of 514 yuan.

Total accounts receivable edged up 0.64 per cent to 7.146 billion yuan, taking up 22.56 per cent of the industry's average balance of current assets, which was 0.33 percentage points higher than that in the same period a year earlier.

Finished products of the industry rose 8.94 per cent to 4.525 billion yuan, taking up 14.28 per cent of the average balance of current assets, 1.28 percentage points higher from the year-earlier period.

Goods delivered for export slumped 53.38 per cent to 399 million yuan. Among the 22 textile machinery manufacturing provinces and municipalities, 15 exported their products to the overseas market. East China's Jiangsu province ranked first in term of value of export goods, followed by Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong and Shanghai. The five jointly took up 94.01 per cent of the country's total value of exported textile machineries of the country.

Sales revenues of the textile machinery industry in major provinces and municipalities including Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing went down. In contrast, those in Anhui, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region managed to grow.

Jiangsu province led textile machinery manufacturers with a main operating revenue of 2.057 billion yuan, holding 29.65 per cent of the total. But its sales revenue fell 14.08 per cent from a year earlier.

In February, sales ratio of the industry hit 100.22 per cent, up 7.26 percentage points from the same month last year.

- Imports and exports slump China's imports and exports of textile machineries fell sharply by 58.61 per cent in the first two month from a year earlier, totaling 404 million U.S. dollars. Included were 271 million dollars from imports, down 62.42 per cent; and 133 million dollars from exports, down 47.78 per cent.

Import

All types of textile machineries saw a decline in imports from January to February. Non-woven machinery led the slump, down 92.38 per cent from the previous year's period. Knitting machinery ranked the first with imports valued at 90.24 million dollars, claiming 33.25 per cent of the total.

German was the largest textile machinery exporter to China in February, followed by Japan, Italy, the U.K. and U.S. Foreign-invested enterprises were major importers in February. The imports mainly took the form of general trade.

East China's Zhejiang province led all Chinese provinces and municipalities in textile machinery imports.

Export

Textile machinery exports plummeted 47.78 per cent in the first two months from the year-earlier period, marking a new low since 2001.

Except for the 7.28 per cent growth in loom exports, exports of the other types of textile machineries all suffered a decline. Knitting machinery led the fall, down 32.9 per cent to $51US million. India turned to out be the largest importer of China's textile machinery, followed by Bengal, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, Burma, Pakistan and Germany.

Private enterprises ranked first in exports, which were conducted mainly in the form of general trade. Zhejiang province led the country in export of textile machinery exports.