The digital textile printing industry will double its year-on-year global growth for the next five years, new research suggests.
In a wide-ranging report from Smithers Pira, The Future of Digital Textile Printing to 2021, the print market researcher forecasted annual average growth for the next five years to be 12.3%, which will see the market more than double, from sales of €1.2bn to €2.4bn.
Smithers’ analysis predicts volumes of fabric being printed with inkjet equipment will increase at an even faster rate than the growth of the market. Currently, 870m sqm of fabric is printed annually and this could rise to 1.95 billion sqm by 2021.
Commissioning editor John Nelson said: “Digital textile printing is growing because of the same advantages inkjet offers in other applications – reduced setup times, faster order response and the ability to produce small, customised runs.
“The latter is especially important in signage and fashion, where the industry is shifting towards multiple mini-seasons within one traditional season; this means newer designs and proofing and multiple short runs.”
Nelson said that more inkjet companies are now seeing opportunities in entering the digital textile industry by purchasing specialist direct-to-textile machinery and ink manufacturers.
This is taking place especially regularly in Italy, where a local technology hub has been established in Como, near the fashion capital of Milan.