Switzerland : Yarn & fabric orders in Europe remain unchanged

The first quarter 2007 brought slightly higher global fabric production with Asia and South America recording higher and Europe lower output levels. World yarn production remained unchanged with Asia reporting a slight increase which was offset by lower outputs in South and North America.
After a surge in the fourth quarter of 2006 resulting in a record high in the past three years global yarn stocks fell due to slight reductions in Asia and Europe and despite an increase in South America. Inventories of fabrics fell in all regions, especially in Asia and Europe. Yarn and fabric orders in Europe remained almost unchanged while they fell in Brazil.
Global yarn production in the first quarter of 2007 remained stable. While Asia recorded an increase of +0.8% both North and South America reported lower yarn output (-1.1% and -5.2%, respectively).
Year on year yarn world production fell slightly by -0.4% with significant curtailments in North and South America (-28.6% and -13.5%, respectively) which were almost compensated by increases in Europe and Asia (+0.4% and +7.4%, respectively).
Compared to the previous quarter the first quarter of 2007 showed an increase in global fabric output of +1.0% with Asia and South America experiencing slight increases of +2.0% and +1.9% whereas Europe's production decreased by -1.8%.
On an annual basis global fabric production rose by +2.6% despite the fact that only Asia recorded an increase (+16.7%) while Europe, South and North America were faced with partially strong reductions (-5.6%, -8.3% and -31.3%, respectively).

After a strong increase in the fourth quarter of 2006 - especially due to higher stock levels in India and Pakistan - global yarn stocks fell in the first quarter by -1.3%. Higher inventories in South America (+15.0%) were more than offset by lower ones in Asia (-3.1%) with Europe's remaining stable (-0.1%).
Compared to the first quarter of 2006 global yarn inventories jumped by +12.9% with South America and Asia reporting increases of +13.7% and +18.7%, respectively, while Europe experienced a curtailment of -3.7%.
World fabric inventories in the first quarter of 2007 fell in all regions both compared to the previous quarter and on an annual basis (-14.6% and -23.5%, respectively).
In comparison to the previous quarter, especially Europe (-22.6%, mainly as a result of the continued downward correction in Spain) and Asia (-13.1%) recorded lower stock levels, while North and South America's reductions were somewhat smaller (-4.8% and -8.8%, respectively).
Year on year global fabric stocks fell by -23.5% with Europe recording a drop of -42.2% (again mainly due to the continued downward correction in Spain), Asia of -13.6%, North America of -10.2% and South America of -5.3%.
Yarn orders both in Brazil and Europe decreased by -6.5% and -0.7%, respectively compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. On an annual basis orders fell by -0.8% in Europe and -20.0% in Brazil.
Compared to the previous quarter fabric orders in Europe hardly changed (+0.1%), whereas Brazil experienced a reduction of -3.2%. Year on year orders were down by -0.4% in Europe and -16.1% in Brazil.