ITMF has published the 37th edition of its Global Textile Industry Survey, the trade body's twice-yearly sentiment check across the textile and apparel value chain.

Textile World distributed the latest results, which continue a survey series ITMF has run since 2009 to track order intake, capacity utilisation, raw material pricing and employment conditions across spinning, weaving, knitting, finishing and apparel operations.

What does the survey measure?

ITMF's Global Textile Industry Survey polls manufacturers at each tier of the value chain. It covers short-staple spinning, long-staple spinning, weaving, knitting, finishing, narrow weaving, garment-making and home textiles.

Respondents grade order backlog, incoming orders, capacity utilisation, raw material inventories and finished goods stocks against the previous six months on a six-point scale.

The poll also captures selling prices, purchase prices of raw materials and employment expectations for the following six months. The aggregated response set forms one of the most-watched reference points for sourcing managers benchmarking country-level conditions.

How is the survey conducted?

Participation is voluntary. ITMF circulates a standardised questionnaire to its member federations and directly to manufacturers, with results aggregated by tier and region.

The twice-yearly cadence gives the dataset a near-real-time pulse, allowing comparisons across consecutive waves even when the underlying respondent mix shifts.

ITMF has previously stated that more than 600 companies worldwide participate in each wave. The longitudinal structure produces comparable trend lines across editions.

Why does the 37th edition matter now?

Order intake has been uneven across major sourcing hubs. Several large apparel buyers have cut or rotated volumes between Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, China, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Cotton, polyester and viscose prices have moved through distinct cycles. Freight rates on the Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific lanes have fluctuated with Red Sea routing changes and shifting tariff regimes.

The latest wave of responses carries weight for brands and retailers preparing autumn sourcing commitments and negotiating fall delivery schedules. Compliance teams also reference the survey when assessing country-of-origin risk across multi-tier supply chains.

How sourcing teams typically read the data

Sourcing teams usually use the survey to cross-check signals from individual factory audits, country reports and shipping data.

Capacity-utilisation readings are read alongside order-backlog trends to identify whether mills are running idle or pulling forward production to manage order books.

Purchase-price indices in the survey give procurement teams a benchmark for negotiating cotton, polyester and man-made fibre contracts. Employment expectations provide an early read on wage pressure and headcount direction at the factory tier.

Regional cuts in the dataset allow buyers to triangulate shifts between South Asia and Southeast Asia, and between North Africa and Turkey, when allocating volumes across seasons.

Who runs ITMF?

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation is a Switzerland-based industry body representing textile manufacturers worldwide. It publishes dedicated reports on cotton, textile machinery, textile chemicals and man-made fibres alongside the survey series.

Where can sourcing teams access the data?

The 37th edition is available via Textile World, which carries the full release and the underlying tables. ITMF also archives previous waves on its own site, allowing subscribers to plot trends across multiple surveys.

For sourcing teams, the survey's value sits in its comparability across waves rather than in any single data point. With the 37th wave now in circulation, procurement managers should align the survey's signals with their own supplier scorecards before finalising Q4 sourcing commitments.