About ITMA Asia + CITME

ITMA Asia + CITME

ITMA Asia + CITME is Asia's leading textile machinery exhibition, the combined Shanghai mega-show formed by CEMATEX's ITMA Asia and China's CITME. Since 2008 the two established exhibitions have been held jointly in Shanghai, creating a single platform that the owners present as the definitive meeting place for the Asian textile machinery industry. The scale explains the claim: the inaugural combined show in July 2008 sold out at over 126,500 square metres with more than 1,200 exhibitors — contemporary reports put the figure at up to 1,368 exhibitors from about 30 countries — and over 80,000 trade visitors from 96 countries. Later editions at the National Exhibition and Convention Center have grossed about 160,000 square metres with over 1,400–1,500 exhibitors. The show covers the entire textile manufacturing value chain across some 18–19 product sectors, from spinning and weaving to finishing, printing and recycling. For machinery makers, it is the principal gateway to the Chinese and wider Asian textile market; for textile manufacturers, it is where the world's leading equipment brands can be compared under one roof.

Two Exhibitions, One Platform

The combined show rests on two distinct lineages. CITME, the China International Textile Machinery Exhibition, is owned by the China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA), the Sub-Council of Textile Industry of the CCPIT and the China International Exhibition Center Group, and ran biennially in Beijing from 1988. ITMA Asia is owned by CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers; it was launched in Singapore in 2001 and repeated there in 2005 with support from the Japan Textile Machinery Association. Both brands therefore arrived in the partnership with established reputations: ITMA as the world's most prestigious textile machinery exhibition family, CITME as China's national show with two decades of history. The decision to combine them in Shanghai from 2008 reflected commercial reality — Asia accounted for over 50 percent of world demand for textile machinery, with China and India its largest markets — and it ended a pattern in which exhibitors and buyers had to choose between competing Asian events. The combined show is owned by CEMATEX together with its Chinese partners CCPIT-Tex, CTMA and the China Exhibition Centre Group Corporation, and is organised by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Co. Ltd. (BJITME) with ITMA Services as co-organiser.

The Inaugural Combined Show in 2008

The first ITMA Asia + CITME, held in July 2008 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), was a landmark for the Asian industry. It brought together 1,368 exhibitors from 30 countries — some official summaries cite more than 1,200 — across a sold-out 126,500 square metres, and hosted more than 80,000 visitors over five days, an increase of more than 150 percent on the previous ITMA Asia in 2005, with over 20 percent international buyers from 96 countries. India supplied the largest overseas visitor representation, followed by Japan, Korea and Thailand. Germany, represented by VDMA, was the largest exhibiting country, with 130 companies; the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) described the event as the most important trade event for the global textile machinery industry. The machinery most sought after by buyers was for knitting and hosiery, followed by spinning and finishing technologies. The 2008 success established the combined format's biennial rhythm in Shanghai and demonstrated that a single show could serve both Chinese machinery makers seeking export markets and international makers seeking Chinese buyers — the dual function that has defined the exhibition ever since.

Growth, the Financial Crisis and the Move to the NECC

The edition-by-edition record traces the industry's fortunes. In 2010 the exhibition area declined to 103,500 square metres from 126,500 in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis, with 1,174 exhibitors; recovery followed, with 1,283 exhibitors and 126,500 square metres in 2012, 1,550 exhibitors and 152,000 square metres in 2014 — when more than 100,000 visitors led organisers to claim the No. 1 position in Asia — and 1,673 exhibitors and 170,000 square metres in 2016. The number of exhibiting countries remained at about 28, with China, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, Japan and Switzerland the largest contingents; in 2016 more than 120 companies came from Italy, nearly 100 from Germany and 40 from Japan, including leading manmade-fibre equipment producers such as Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag, and more than 20 Indian companies exhibited. Editions in 2010, 2012 and 2014 remained at SNIEC; when the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) was completed, the 2016 show moved there, and the NECC has hosted the exhibition since. Chinese exhibitors have consistently formed the largest contingent — in 2014 they booked slightly over 66 percent of space, with European manufacturers taking over 22 percent — reflecting China's dual role as the largest producer and the largest buyer of textile machinery.

The Pandemic Editions and Recovery

The combined show's resilience was tested after 2018 — the tenth-anniversary edition of the combined format — when the pandemic disrupted the biennial cycle. The seventh ITMA Asia + CITME, designated the 2020 edition, opened on 12 June 2021 after an eight-month postponement, grossing 160,000 square metres with 1,237 textile machinery manufacturers from 20 countries and regions. It was described as the largest showcase of textile machinery since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. China supplied over 1,000 participants occupying over 56,000 square metres of net space, including CHTC, Fong's, Ningbo Cixing and Wuxi Hongyuan; 170 exhibitors came from CEMATEX territories, with Germany (57 exhibitors) and Italy (63) the largest groups, and Japanese participation coordinated by the Japan Textile Machinery Association, the show's strategic partner. Despite travel restrictions, leading European and Japanese brands — Groz-Beckert, Itema, Karl Mayer, Picanol, Rieter, Saurer, Savio, Shima Seiki, Stäubli, Toyota and others — took part. The eighth edition, designated 2022 and postponed into 19–23 November 2023, again grossed 160,000 square metres across six halls of the NECC with about 1,500 exhibitors from 23 countries and regions, and a further edition followed in October 2024, confirming the show's return to its Shanghai rhythm.

Product Sectors Across the Textile Value Chain

The exhibition's comprehensiveness is one of its defining strengths. Exhibits span 18–19 product sectors covering the entire textile manufacturing value chain, ranging from spinning to finishing, recycling, testing and packaging. In terms of space, spinning has traditionally been the largest sector — 25 percent of total exhibit space at the 2021 edition — followed by finishing at 24 percent, knitting at 13 percent, weaving at 12 percent and printing at 8 percent. That distribution mirrors the structure of Asian textile production, in which spinning capacity is vast and finishing is where quality, sustainability and value-added are decided. Exhibitors include the full roll of global textile machinery leadership: CHTC Group, Groz-Beckert, Itema, Muratec, Oerlikon, Picanol, Rieter, Saurer, Savio, Shima Seiki, Stäubli, Trützschler, Uster and Vandewiele have all appeared at recent editions alongside hundreds of Chinese manufacturers. For buyers — mill owners, garment manufacturers and investors from across Asia — the sector layout allows an entire factory's equipment, from fibre preparation to packaged garment technology, to be surveyed and negotiated in a single visit, which is precisely the efficiency a combined mega-show is designed to deliver.

Owners, Organisers and Industry Backing

The governance of ITMA Asia + CITME is a partnership between European and Chinese industry bodies. CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, owns the ITMA and ITMA Asia brands; its Chinese partners — the Sub-Council of Textile Industry of the CCPIT (CCPIT-Tex), the China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA) and the China Exhibition Centre Group Corporation (CIEC) — own CITME. The show is organised by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Co. Ltd. and co-organised by ITMA Services, with the Japan Textile Machinery Association as a special/strategic partner. This structure gives the exhibition both international credibility and deep roots in the Chinese industry: CTMA's involvement connects it to China's machinery makers — the Chinese textile machinery market was valued at 17.6 billion US dollars in 2016 — while CEMATEX brings the European manufacturers who supply the industry's highest-technology segments. National associations amplify participation: VDMA for Germany, ACIMIT for Italy and JTMA for Japan coordinate their members' presence. The arrangement has proved durable, surviving the financial crisis, venue changes and the pandemic, and in 2025 it was extended geographically, as described below.

Visitors, Markets and the Asian Textile Economy

The show's visitor profile reveals its market function. The inaugural edition drew over 80,000 trade visitors from 96 countries, with South and Southeast Asian nations prominent among buyers and India the largest overseas contingent; by 2014 attendance exceeded 100,000. Asia represents over half of world demand for textile machinery, and China and India are its largest markets, so the Shanghai show sits at the demand centre of the global industry. Chinese exhibitors connect through it to textile users at home and abroad, while international exhibitors use it to reach the region's mill owners. Commentary around the editions tracks the industry's shifting concerns: sustainability framing such as the German Blue Competence initiative and ACIMIT's sustainable technologies project featured at the 2014 show, and the 2023 edition was presented as a showcase of technological solutions to help manufacturers stay competitive and sustainable. The first year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan framed the 2021 edition's opportunities. In short, the exhibition operates as a barometer of Asian textile investment — its exhibitor counts and floor space expand and contract with the industry's capital-spending cycle, as the 2010 contraction and subsequent recovery demonstrated.

Expansion to Singapore in 2025

In 2025 the owners extended the partnership to a second location, staging ITMA Asia + CITME in Singapore with over 840 exhibitors from 30 countries across 70,000 square metres, while the Shanghai series continues biennially. The Singapore edition marks a significant evolution: the combined brand, born in Shanghai in 2008, became an exportable format serving Southeast Asia's growing textile and garment production base. The move echoes the brand's own history — ITMA Asia itself began in Singapore in 2001 and 2005 before the Shanghai combination — but now returns there as part of a two-city strategy rather than as an alternative venue. For exhibitors, the pairing offers access to both China's manufacturing heartland and the ASEAN-centred supply chains that have grown as production diversifies across Asia. The Shanghai exhibition remains the larger anchor event, at roughly 160,000 square metres, while Singapore provides a complementary platform. The extension also underlines the partnership's confidence: CEMATEX and its Chinese partners, having built Asia's leading textile machinery show, judged the combined brand strong enough to operate in two markets without diluting either.

Significance for the Global Textile Machinery Industry

ITMA Asia + CITME's significance rests on its position at the intersection of the world's largest machinery-producing country and its largest machinery-buying region. As the combined heir of ITMA Asia (2001) and CITME (1988), it carries nearly four decades of accumulated industry relationships, and its edition statistics — from 1,368 exhibitors in 2008 through 1,673 in 2016 to about 1,500 in 2023 — make it the largest textile machinery event in Asia by any consistent measure. Industry voices have repeatedly endorsed that standing, from ACIMIT's 2008 assessment of the show as the global industry's most important trade event to CTMA's characterisation of it as the biggest show in Asia. For the wider ITMA family, whose flagship European exhibition dates to 1951, the Shanghai show is the essential Asian counterpart, ensuring the brand's presence where most machinery is bought and much of it is now built. Its survival and recovery through crisis and pandemic, and its 2025 expansion to Singapore, confirm a durable model: a jointly owned, sector-complete exhibition anchored in Shanghai, serving the entire textile manufacturing value chain.