Twice a year, the World Textile Information Network (WTIN) performs an analysis of the digital textile printing market. This market report provides valuable insights into the unique and fast-moving digital textile printing industry.

The main conclusion from last year’s report? The digital textile printing market still has lots of room to grow, and increasingly more printers are taking advantage of the fast production turnaround, lower inventory and endless design possibilities of digital printing. In this blog, I share and discuss the most important take-home messages from the WTIN industry review 2017 with you.

Further global expansion of digital textile printing

In 2017, the digital textile printing industry continued its global growth. This expansion in growth does not only indicate the arrival of new business, but it also indicates the penetration of this technique into traditional printing by replacing old-technology machines with new ones.

• Digital textile machinery sales are helping to push the market to around 1.9 billion sqm of digitally printed fabric globally.
  
  
• The full year showed an uplift in output of 22%.
  
  
• The share of digital textile printing in the total printing industry becomes 5.5% globally.

The growth of digital textile printing most significant in Asia and Europe

China, Italy, India, Turkey and the US continue to dominate in terms of digital textile printing usage and show steady growth rates in the past year. The most prominent digital textile regions in the world in 2017 are still Europe and Asia, but the digital textile printing industry continues to grow both inside and outside these regions in smaller markets.

For example, high growth rates have been reported in 2017 in markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and other South & Eastern Asian countries. In Russia and Egypt, governments support to improve the textile industry which will drive new investments and a new focus on environmental impact of printing techniques.

• The output volume of digitally printed fabric in the five top countries (China, Italy, India, Turkey and the US) is 47% of the global volume.
  
  
• Asia and Europe saw roughly 37% and 38% market shares respectively.
  
  
• Investments in high-end machinery in China will show its impact on output volume coming years.
  
  
• Pakistan is the fastest growing market in South & Eastern Asia, with a 40% increase in the output volume compared to 2016.

Increased popularity for digital sublimation transfer

Within the digital textile printing industry, sublimation transfer continues to be an important area. The sublimation transfer technique but also the direct sublimation printing solution becomes more popular due to the lower costs of sublimation printers and decreasing ink prices. This trend is particularly noticeable in markets focusing on meeting the fashion and sportswear export demand, such as Turkey and Brazil.

Want to read in more detail about the trends reported by WTIN digital textile printing industry report of 2017? Download the summary of the review here.

Is digital textile printing worth your investment?

The digital textile printing industry grows significantly and is projected to grow 20% by volume through the period of 2017 until 2021. As you can see, increasingly more printers are making the transition from conventional to digital printing.

Do you wonder if digital textile printing could be of value to your company? Then it’s time to discover how the transition to digital printing can help you make your business grow.

In an independent study, Gherzi identified three main investment reasons for digital textile printing. Three significant advantages that helped other printers obtain new business opportunities and realize growth.

Find out what these advantages are and if they could be of value to your company in the Gherzi white paper: