A survey by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) shows that textile machinery manufacturers recorded declines of between 3-66 percent in shipments in 2008. The ITMF report covers spinning, texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing machinery. Investment in textile machinery boomed between 2003 and 2007, but the faltering world economy and the 2007 phaseout of quotas under the World Trade Organization��s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing played into the decline in shipments.

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