The 15th ITMF Corona—Survey shows that the business situation plunged into negative territory in July 2022.The business situation is worse in Asia than in the rest of the world.Textile machinery is the only segment still in positive territory.Business expectations have also turned nega—tive for the first time since the start of survey in May 2021.South—East Asia and South America are relatively more optimistic,downstream seg—ments as well.

Order intake is weakening globally but is still in positive territory.Here too,expectations have turned negative in all textile segments except for textile ma—chinery producers.A difficult period is to be expected ahead.Order intake is deteriorating in all Asian re—gions and stable in North America,South America,and Africa.

Order backlog has been slightly decreasing in the past few months,from a maximum of 3.1 months in March 2022 to 2.9 months in July.It is expected to continue falling until March 2023.Capacity utiliza—tion rate has been stagnating since the beginning of 2022,on average.This indicator is rising in Africa and North and Central America.South Asia reports a strong decrease in capacity utilization,so do fibre and home textile producers as well as spinners.

While high prices for raw materials,energy,and logis—tics are still regarded as major supply side concerns,they have somewhat eased com—pared to May 2022.The pros—pects of weakening demand caused by surging inflation are worrisome.