Textile and clothing industry

Textile and clothing industry

The dominant current trend in the German textile and clothing industry is stagnation. After getting off to a promising start to the year after the difficult Covid years of 2020 and 2021, revenue was finally approaching its pre-crisis level of 2019. Since then, however, the upswing has faltered. In 2022 overall, the industry is unlikely to reach its pre-crisis level.

Sales for the industry as per August were much higher than in the previous year, up 10.1 percent (textiles up 8.1 percent, clothing up 20.3 percent), but with a low base line these growth rates are not enough to regain pre-crisis levels. Trends in the workforce show the same picture. The number of employees is pointing up but is still ten percent below pre-crisis levels. Sales figures since the summer 2022, and particularly after seasonal adjustment, trace a clear downward trend.

Overall, exports are performing better this year than domestic sales.

The industry’s short-term expectations have also become much more pessimistic. This is particularly true of the textiles sector where the ifo index has dropped steadily and is now as low as it last was at the beginning of the Covid crisis. In contrast, the ratings of clothing companies were decidedly optimistic up to the summer, particularly regarding short-term expectations. This optimism had evaporated almost entirely by the autumn. Foreign trade expectations have deteriorated especially, above all in the clothing sector.

The soaring energy prices and partly exorbitant increases in the prices of inputs are still placing a great strain on companies as they generally only have very limited scope to pass on the increased prices on account of the structure of their customer industries. The massive difficulties with supplies in the past few months have also kept the performance of the industry down.

Overall, we do not expect to see a complete recovery in 2022 but rather that downward trends will dominate the picture.

Contact: Marcus Jacoangeli / Phone: +49 30 7262 2024 / Mail: mjacoangeli@textil-mode.de