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Textile Industry Report

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The Business Wire has a nice article here on the textile industry, which is obviously relevant to anyone with an arts & crafts type of hobby.

Demand is driven by the domestic apparel industry and consumer demand for home furnishings like carpets, furniture, and curtains. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations. Large companies have economies of scale in production for high-production items. Small companies can compete successfully by producing specialized textiles. The industry has become more automated but is still labor-intensive; average annual revenue per employee is under $150,000.

Major products are yarns and threads, fabrics, carpets, and curtains. The industry produces yarns and threads out of natural (wool and cotton) and synthetic (plastics) materials, uses yarns and threads to produce fabrics that are woven or knit, finishes fabrics by dyeing or coating them, and makes fabrics into simple finished consumer products like rugs, carpets, curtains, linens, and textile bags. Fabrics account for about 40 percent of industry revenue, carpets 20 percent, yarns and threads 20 percent.

Textiles are made in factories (still called mills because they were among the earliest industrial users of water power) using highly specialized, automated machinery, mainly yarn spinning machines, knitting machines, and various looms.

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