ITMF Releases 2010 International Production Cost Comparison

By Jim.Robinson|February 17, 2011

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) has released the 2010 edition of its biennial International Production Cost Comparison, the only consolidated source for benchmarking the yarn and fabric production costs prevailing in eight of the world’s most important textile manufacturing countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Italy, Korea, Turkey and the United States.

The report is designed to highlight the implications of the ever-increasing capital intensity of the primary textile industry by tracing the impact of cost factors borne by manufacturers and presenting them on a standardized basis. This format allows the reader to readily compare elements of total manufacturing costs across representative production facilities.

The presentation of manufacturing and total yarn and fabric costs incorporates a detailed breakdown into the various cost components per kilogram of yarn and per meter of fabric, showing their relative importance and influence in the countries under review.

The International Production Cost Comparison incorporates a wide range of cost factors, from externally-determined factors like raw material and machinery prices through to the local prices of labor, energy, water, capital, and many other inputs to production. The textile industry segments analyzed are spinning, texturing, weaving and knitting. Individual results are supplied for ring-spun, o-e, and textured yarns, and for fabrics woven and knitted from each of these yarn types.

Manufacturing costs covered in the report are based on parameters specified by the textile machinery companies Rieter, Oerlikon Barmag, ITEMA Weaving (Sultex) and Mayer & Cie. As a result, the representative cost structure for each country is derived from both “bottom-up” (investment analysis) and “top-down” (surveyed) standpoints. While not attempting to exhaustively explain the final sales price of yarns and fabrics, the International Production Cost Comparison nonetheless provides a unique basis for considering variations in international costs on a technically robust, yet accessible, foundation.