Central Asia is already an attractive market for German textile machinery manufacturers and has potential for growth. In order to deepen the business contacts with textile manufacturers from the central Asian countries, the VDMA Textile Machinery Association initiated the “German Textile Technology Symposium Central Asia” took place from May 19 – 20 in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent.

The symposium was officially supported by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. Leading German textile machinery manufacturers reported in lectures about their latest developments and technical innovations that enable textile producers in the region to enhance their position in the world market.

Uzbekistan is the most important destination in Central Asia for textile machinery made in Germany. While the German export figures reached nearly 15 million Euros in 2006 as well as in 2007, the exports decreased in 2008 and reached 9.85 million Euros.

Like many other textile industries in the world, the Uzbek one had to face a downturn. In 2008, the highest demand was registered for spinning machinery (5.68 million Euros) and weaving machinery (4.62 million Euros).

The demand for knitting and hosiery machinery (163 thousand Euros) and for finishing machinery (183 thousand Euros) was comparably small last year. But both machinery groups had export figures to Uzbekistan well above one and even two million Euros in previous years with a better economic climate.

Kazakhstan, the other key market in the region performed very well last year. In 2008 textile machinery worth 10.65 million Euros (+ 235 %) were shipped to this country. The export figures to the other central Asian nations such as Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan were much lower.