When the ITMF Global Textile Industry Survey shifts its top-ranked concern from weak demand to geopolitics, that is not a sentiment footnote — it is a signal that the operating environment for mills and brands has changed category. The 37th edition makes that shift explicit, and the data behind it is specific enough to matter for capacity and sourcing decisions.
Released on April 7, 2026, and based on fieldwork conducted in March, the International Textile Manufacturers Federation’s 37th Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS) captures how the sector is absorbing a new cluster of pressures: the US/Israel-Iran war, the energy market disruption it triggered, and logistics complications flowing from the Strait of Hormuz blockade. For mill operators, sourcing directors, and machinery investment teams trying to read the market, the picture is materially worse than the previous survey cycle suggested it would be.
What the ITMF Global Textile Industry Survey Actually Measures
The GTIS uses a balance score methodology: the percentage of respondents reporting improvement minus the percentage reporting deterioration. A negative balance means more firms are experiencing worsening conditions than improving ones. The survey spans the full textile manufacturing chain — spinning, weaving, knitting, garment production, brands and retailers, and textile machinery manufacturers — across all major producing regions.
That breadth is what makes it a useful instrument. It aggregates conditions that individual company data cannot replicate, giving a sector-wide signal on where pressure is landing and where forward investment appetite is going.
Business Sentiment in the 37th GTIS Falls to a Multi-Year Low
The global business situation balance dropped to -25 percentage points. More significantly, the global business expectations balance collapsed from over +23 percentage points to just +5 percentage points. That is the lowest reading since November 2022, the period when the industry was absorbing the full impact of the Ukraine invasion and the energy price shock that followed. The ITMF explicitly flags stagflation risks comparable to that episode as a renewed concern.
Africa was the only region to post a positive business situation balance. North & Central America recorded the steepest regional decline, reflecting its direct exposure to energy and trade disruptions linked to the conflict. South America led on forward-looking optimism. South-East Asia was the most pessimistic on expectations — a notable position for a region that many brands have treated as a primary production base for the past decade.
Among segments, garment producers fared best on the current business situation measure. Brands and retailers were the most upbeat on forward expectations. Textile machinery manufacturers remained deeply negative on both measures — and weavers and knitters sat alongside them in negative expectations territory.
Regional and Segment Snapshot: 37th GTIS Key Findings
| Region / Segment | Current Business Situation | Forward Expectations |
|---|---|---|
| Global (all respondents) | -25 pp balance | +5 pp — lowest since Nov 2022 |
| Africa | Positive (only positive region) | Not disclosed |
| North & Central America | Steepest decline | Not disclosed |
| South America | Not disclosed | Most optimistic region |
| South-East Asia | Not disclosed | Most pessimistic region |
| Garment Producers | Best-performing segment | Not disclosed |
| Brands & Retailers | Not disclosed | Most upbeat segment |
| Textile Machinery Manufacturers | Deeply negative | Deeply negative |
| Weavers / Knitters | Not disclosed | Deeply negative |
Geopolitics Overtakes Weak Demand as the Primary Industry Concern
For the first time in recent survey cycles, geopolitics ranked as the industry’s top concern, cited by 50% of respondents. Weak demand, which has held the top position across multiple prior surveys, came in at 49%. The margin is narrow, but the inversion carries weight — it means the sector’s primary anxiety has shifted from cyclical demand softness to structural supply-side risk driven by conflict.
The drivers are operationally specific. The US/Israel-Iran war has pushed energy prices higher, raised raw material costs, and disrupted logistics through the Strait of Hormuz. These translate directly into cost pressure for energy-intensive processes: dyeing, finishing, texturising, and high-temperature fibre production. Mills running continuous operations on fixed energy contracts will feel this differently from those with variable purchasing flexibility.
Tariff concern dropped sharply — from 31% to 13%. That shift suggests the market has either absorbed and priced in tariff risk from previous cycles, or recategorised it as secondary against the more immediate shocks to energy and freight.
What the 37th GTIS Does Not Tell Manufacturers
The survey captures direction, not magnitude. It cannot tell an individual mill operator how much to budget for raw material cost increases or energy surcharges — only that more firms are experiencing deterioration than improvement. Specific production volumes, order book sizes, and capacity utilisation data were not disclosed in the public release. Full granular data sits behind ITMF member access.
Relocation of production and capital-intensive strategic responses remain low in adoption across the survey sample. Whether that reflects genuine operational resilience or deferred decision-making is not resolvable from the survey data alone. Market diversification away from the US is confirmed as an intensifying response, but the pace and depth of that shift will vary considerably by product category and existing supply chain architecture.
The firms best positioned to act on this data immediately are those with existing geographic flexibility — brands with diversified supplier networks spanning multiple producing regions, and spinning or finishing mills already serving multi-market customer bases. Machinery investment looks set to remain constrained near-term, particularly for weaving and knitting operations already sitting in deeply negative expectations territory. African and South American mills may attract increased buyer interest as sourcing strategies shift away from North American and South-East Asian concentration, but the timeline for that to materialise in commercial volumes is still unclear.
What This Survey Cycle Signals for Textile Manufacturing Strategy
I’ve tracked ITMF survey data across multiple cycles, and the displacement of weak demand by geopolitics as the sector’s primary concern reflects something structural rather than cyclical. The post-pandemic period conditioned the industry to manage demand volatility and tariff risk. The energy and logistics dimension now embedded in a live conflict affecting a critical maritime chokepoint is a different category of operating pressure entirely. It rewards geographic diversification, operational flexibility, and lower energy dependency — and it penalises supply chains optimised purely for cost efficiency in a stable environment.
The machinery investment signal matters too. When textile machinery manufacturers stay deeply negative across two consecutive metrics, the industry’s own capex pipeline is telling you something about confidence in near-term demand recovery. That has implications for technology adoption timelines, modernisation programmes, and the pace at which newer process technologies — including energy-efficient dyeing systems and automation — actually reach the mill floor.
If your mill or sourcing operation is directly exposed to energy cost volatility or Strait of Hormuz logistics disruption, the full ITMF Global Textile Industry Survey dataset — accessible through ITMF membership at itmf.org — is worth reviewing before locking in capacity commitments or supplier programmes for the remainder of the year. The regional and segment breakdowns in the full report will give you the comparative benchmarks the public summary does not.
Mills that build supply chain structures capable of absorbing geopolitical shocks without pausing production or absorbing unsustainable cost increases will define the competitive benchmark that the rest of the industry is measured against in the cycles ahead.