Fabric mills: operating rate apparently lower on the year

Fabric mills witnessed improving orders but the improvement was not apparent. Stocks of fabrics declined slowly. The capital turnover met bigger resistance. Some orders were rerouting out of China to emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. The operating rate of fabric mills was still lower on the same period of last year, especially circular knitting field. With rapidly declining spandex prices, fabric mills reverted producing high-density circular knitting fabrics with high content of spandex (15-50%). In addition, circular knitting plants were cautious in hoarding up stocks when the production efficiency was high, orders were insufficient and there were rich varieties. Most circular knitting plants chose to run at low capacity.