Textile Market and Spinning Process

Rieter is the only systems provider that covers the complete manufacturing process in spinning mills: from fiber preparation through to the four end-spinning technologies. 

The process from fiber to textile begins with fiber production. A yarn is produced from the fibers; for example, from cotton, linen, polyester or viscose. A textile is then produced from the yarn via various processing steps, such as weaving, knitting, dyeing or finishing. 

Yarn manufacturing is a highly technological step in the textile value chain and can heavily influence the performance of downstream process steps. 

Yarn is basically produced in two ways. The first method is by spinning staple fibers with a length of either 23 to 60 mm (short-staple fibers) or of more than 60 mm (longstaple fibers). 

The second method is by processing filaments to make continuous filament yarn. The yarns resulting from filaments have different properties from those produced from staple fibers. In the clothing industry, the yarn produced from staple fiber predominates because it offers pleasant wearing comfort. 

The two types of yarn production each account for about 50 percent of world fiber consumption. Rieter is mainly engaged in yarn production from staple fibers. The most important staple fibers in 2024 were cotton (about 25 million tons), polyester (about 19 million tons) and viscose (about seven million tons). Cotton is a slow growing product due to natural limitations, but production of viscose and polyester is projected to grow in the coming years.

The process for producing a yarn from staple fibers consists of three stages: fiber preparation, spinning preparation and end spinning.

The fibers, which are delivered in bales, are separated, cleaned if necessary, and aligned. This takes place during opening and carding. Spinning preparation involves the homogenization and drawing of the sliver, and the machine used for this is known as the draw frame. In cotton processing, the comber also plays a role: here, short fibers are combed out in order to produce a higher quality yarn. By the end of the spinning preparation stage, a uniform sliver or roving has been produced.

In the end-spinning stage, the fiber mesh is further drawn (up to about 40 fibers in cross-section for very fine yarns) and spun into a yarn by twisting. Twisting takes place by means of a rotating spindle (ring spinning, compact spinning), by rotation of a rotor (rotor spinning) or by an air flow (air-jet spinning). Compact spinning is a variant of ring spinning that uses an auxiliary device to achieve yarn with a higher density as a result of improved fiber integration.

After spinning, imperfections are removed from the yarn. The yarn is then wound on a package to present it in a suitable form for the subsequent process steps in the textile production chain. 

The winding machine serves as the final quality assurance in the ring spinning and compact-spinning process, and is crucial in the performance of the following steps. Yarn faults that are not detected here can result in machine downtimes during downstream processing, problems during the dyeing process, or faults in woven or knitted fabric.

The world market for staple fiber machines relevant to Rieter has an annual volume of CHF 2 200 million to CHF 4 000 million. Rieter is the market leader with a share of about 30 percent.

The business with new machines is cyclical. The tendency to invest in the spinning industry is mainly influenced by expectations of fiber consumption and the margins that can be achieved through sale of yarns.

Fiber consumption is dependent on the economy, while the margins for yarn depend on the movement of raw material prices, capacity utilization, production costs of the spinning mills and foreign exchange rates. Government programs also have an influence.

Rieter aims to balance out the cyclicality of the machines business with consumables, wear & tear and spare parts, and after-sales services. This less cyclical business is driven by the degree of capacity utilization of operational spinning mills, which require consumables, wear & tear and spare parts.