Italy’s textile machinery sector is showing fresh momentum heading into the second half of 2026, even as year-on-year comparisons remain in negative territory, new data from industry body ACIMIT reveals.
The association’s Textile Machinery Order Index registered 46.6 points (2021=100) for the second quarter of 2026, a 3% dip versus the same quarter last year.
Domestic orders bore the brunt of that annual decline, sliding a steep 25%, while export business held up far better.
Looking at the first half of the year as a whole, bookings are running 4% behind 2025’s pace, with domestic markets down 11% and export markets down a more modest 3%.
But when compared against first quarter of 2026, total orders jumped 25% in the second quarter, a combination of a 39% surge in domestic orders and a 23% climb in international shipments.
Manufacturers now report roughly 3.5 months of guaranteed production sitting in their order books, with factories running at an average 79.7% capacity utilisation.
Breaking it down by segment, every production category posted flat-to-positive domestic results quarter-on-quarter, with spinning and weaving equipment leading the charge.
Export orders picked up too, particularly for weaving, knitting and finishing machinery and manufacturers are expecting flat sales volumes for the third quarter.
Sentiment on the home market stays guarded, while views on export prospects are split roughly down the middle between optimism and caution, a picture ACIMIT is characterizing as measured, rather than gloomy.
ACIMIT president Marco Salvadè pointed to the resilience of overseas demand as a bright spot, given that roughly four out of five orders placed with Italian textile machine builders come from foreign buyers.
On the domestic softness, he flagged two factors: a tough comparison against an unusually strong second quarter of 2025, and the newly rolled-out 2026-2028 hyper-depreciation tax incentive, whose real effect on investment decisions hasn’t yet filtered through the data.
Image courtesy: Megapixel
