French Machinery:Technology Partner for the Chinese Textile Industry

Bruno Ameline,  the President,  and Evelyne Cholet,  the Secretary General  of UCMTF  (French Textile Machinery Manufacturers Association)  report  on  the French  textile machinery  just  a  few weeks  before  the  first  ITMA ASIA+CITME show taking place in Shanghai July 27 to 31.
 

Q: You will be at  ITMA ASIA + CITME in a few weeks, which are your expectations?

Bruno Ameline: The merger of two very successful  shows,  ITMA ASIA  and CITME will  certainly  create  a major event. The French textile machinery manufacturers  have  been  very actively  preparing  the selves'  to take  full  advantage  of  this  unique or poor unity  to welcome  on  our booths so many actual and potential customers  from China  and more generally  from  all  over Asia. Our companies are particularly strong  in weaving  preparation, nonwovens, and has very vigorous manufacturers in specialized  spinning,  dyeing  and finishing machinery.

We will  show our machines, describe  the  services we  offer  and explain  our  strategies. We  do  not sell machines only but can help  the textile producers develop new high value products, we can be for them technology partners. Despite  the  uncertain  economic environment we are quite optimistic about  the Asian markets,  they will rebound and evolve, our companies are well  positioned  for  this  future round of investments.
 

Q: How  French  text i le machinery manufacturers are doing right now?

Bruno Ameline: Worldwide  inves tments in textile machinery  have  been  quite satisfactory in the last few years. As for our 35 member companies, they are  doing  quite well.  They  export most  of  their  product ion  for  an annual total of more than euros one billion (close to US$ 1.5 billion).

Evelyne Cholet: In  2006  and  2007  our  growth rate exceeded 6%. For 2008, order backlogs are good and order intakes come in at a regular pace.
 

Q: While  your  associate members  are currently doing well, do you  think  they are well positioned for the future?

Bruno Ameline: Let 's  star t  from  the market . It  has  changed  and  cont inues to  change.  First,  there  has  been a  continuous  shift  of  the  textile product ion  towards  Asia.  And this,  particularly  in  apparel  and home  textiles.  Turkey and  Italy  are exceptions.  For technical  textiles including nonwovens,  the picture  is quite different.  These products are still mainly produced in  the US and Europe,  and Asia  gets  only  around 20%- 25% of  this growing market. Asia will  produce more  and more technical  textiles  for  its  own  use but  I  believe  the  product ion  of these  products  to  be  consumed in Europe  and North America will remain on these continents because the"fabric" manufacturers  have to  stay  in  close  contact with  the final  users.  For  example,  in  the fast  growing  filtration market,  the products have to ft so many specifc usages,  in  so many  indust r ies, that  the  processes  to  produce  the fabrics or the nonwovens have to be adapted to each specifc application.

French machinery manufacturers are  specialty manufacturers, SMEs but world  leaders  or  among  the world  leaders  on  niche markets and  specific  appl ications.  These markets  are  complex  and we  are particularly  competitive  to  become our customers' technology partners to  help  them  introduce  new,  high margin, value added products.
 

Q: How  can  French manufacturers consolidate  their  leadership  on  their markets?

While offering: high tech machinery  for  high  tech  specialty markets, I strongly believe we have to  customize  our machines  and offer  tailor made  solutions  to  our customers. We  are  not  equipped to  compete  on mass  production applicat ions,  like  shor t  fibers or  filament  spinning,  for which price  is  the main  factor.  For  these segments,  production will  continue to  be  t ransfer red  to  low  costs countries. Our most  impor tant  added value  lies  in working  closely with our  customers,  in  producing made to orders machies on shortdel ivery  time,  in  being  flexible. This  also means we must  balance the  traditional  vertical  integration organizat ion  of  our  product ion facilities with a more  f lexible approach. Most of us may need  to outsource  the  production  of most of our components, to fnd the best and least expensive subcontractors, to build a network  of  state  of  the art,cost effect ive  and  flexible suppl iers,  to design machines in modules  in  order  to  propose a  large  and  diversi f ied  product offer without  over  complexifying production .  We also have to actively  participate  in  the  decision process  of  our  customers  in  order to propose them solutions for their own  product ion  st rategies  and become more  and more  process partners  and  not  only  suppliers  of off-shelf machinery.  I  can  confirm most  of  our  associate  companies have  since  long  implemented most  of  this  approach  in  their organizations.
 

Q: Do  you  feel  competition  from Chinese machinery manufacturers will intensify?

On  the Chinese market ,  the position  of Chinese machinery manufacturers  is  al ready  quite strong  and  their market  share  is already  important. As  you  know, imports beneft from tax exemptions for  some  categories  of machines but when Chinese manufacturers can  of fer  equivalent machines, these import tax exemptions risk to be  cancelled.  Importers  then  face an additional barrier to entry in spite, by  the way, China being a member of  ITWO.  The  French  approach  is to  be  special ized manufacturers aiming at niche markets with a tailor made approach  to address  in depth customers' needs and be their  long term partners in the long run.
 

Q: Is the exchange value of the Yuan an important factor?

Evelyne Cholet: The value  of  the Yuan  is  going up slowly in comparison to the US$, the problem being that the US $ has gone  down much more  compared to  the  euro.  Then,  the European costs in euro's into still translate into higher Yuan values. I  feared  that  the  high  Euro would  have  negative  effect  on  the machinery  business  but,  there  has not  been  so much  impact  so  far.

In  fact, Chinese  textile  producers like  all  others  are  faced with  price increases of synthetic fibers', which have  an  important  effect  on  their costs,  as  raw materials  represent 60 to 70 % of their production cost, compared  to  around  5%-10 %  for the  amortization of machinery. This means  costs  are going up  in China as much as in other places and that the  prices  of  fnal  goods  also  have to increase there.
 

Q: UCMTF  is  a member  of Cematex, the  owner  of  ITMA  and  ITMA Asia, how  do  you  see  the  future  of  these shows  and  of  the  exhibitions  in general?

Bruno Ameline: ITMA  took  place  in Munich in October  2007.  This  show was a  success,  very wel l  organized and more  importantly,  exhibitors met many  customers who  had investments  projects  and  even signedimp ortant contracts . But  - there  are "buts"- most  of the  visitors  came  from  Europe, Americas,  India, Middle East  and not  so many  from  the  Far East, including China.  From what  I  see, it  is more  and more  difficul t  to host  real  global  fairs.  This  is why Cematex  organizes  the  third  ITMA Asia in 2008 in China. The merger of ITMA ASIA  and CITME makes  this edition a real leader. We are looking to meet  in Shanghai  the customers who  have  not  come  to Munich. N. Schlumberger, RITM, Superba,  Fil Control, AESA, Laroche, Asselin- Thibeau, Rieter Perfojet, Stäubli, Calemard, Decoup+, Dollfuset Muller  look  forward welcoming these  customers  and  the  trade press.

Source:Alibaba