Textil+mode – the German Confederation of the Textile and Fashion Industry – has recently published its current economic report. First of all, it shows that the Russian aggression in Ukraine caused a sudden slow-down of the German textile and fashion industry, as it was trying to make up for the dramatic losses of the Corona years.
Although manufacturers of technical textiles have reached the pre-crisis sales level of 2019, the skyrocketing energy prices and the additional costs caused by inflation have severe negative consequences for the earnings situation and employment in companies. Employment is well over minus 10 percent below the pre-crisis level. Consequently, entrepreneurs are relatively pessimistic in their expectations.
Dr Uwe Mazura – the organisation’s General Manager – states that the supportive price measures for electricity and gas must come into force quickly, or else it will be too late for many companies producing in Germany. More and more medium-sized and family-run traditional manufacturers are forced to close down their production in Germany or go abroad. Consequently, the German world market leadership in technical textiles is in danger. This would involve destructive consequences for the supply chains and the textile knowledge, which are vital for numerous future technologies in environmental technology, regenerative energies or the circular economy.
