The global battle for seamless knitting machines

Seamless knitwear is a one-time forming fabric produced by a novel special forming equipment-seamless knitting machine, which can be used to make underwear, swimwear, sportswear and other categories. Statistics show that in 2005, seamless knitting and traditional knitting accounted for 40% and 60% of the global knitted underwear market respectively. In recent years, as the global textile layout has shifted to Asia and even more to China, more and more enterprises in my country are engaged in the production of seamless knitwear. No matter domestic sales or foreign trade processing, the domestic seamless clothing market is very strong. Potential. The hot sales of seamless garments directly stimulated the competition of seamless knitting machine equipment manufacturers at home and abroad into a fierce stage. **Early and **Best World** seamless knitting machine was successfully developed by the Italian Shengge Company in 1984. At the time Shengge Company, as the world’s major manufacturer of seamless knitting equipment, used to cooperate with Santoni. The company has formed a situation where the two heroes are fighting for hegemony, but since 1997, due to equipment stability and market operation, the market share of Shengge Company has lagged far behind Santoni Company. In July 2004, Shengge Company announced to join the Italian Ronati Group where Santoni Company is located. With the overall resources of the group, the market sales of Shengge seamless knitting machines improved slightly.  In the field of seamless knitting machine manufacturing in the world, Italian Santoni Company probably knows it. As of today, Santoni’s full series of seamless machines includes 18 models, from the SM4 single jersey knitting machine series with relatively simple functions to the SM8 single jersey knitting machine series and SM9 type. Double-sided Josai knitting machine series, including SM8-C which is now widely used. F, SM8-V. E, SM8-TOP2 and other models, the diameter of the cylinder covers 11 inches to 17 inches, and the needle type also includes a wide range of 9G to 32G. “The best” business secret should be said that Santoni’s success depends first of all on their possession of the world’s best technical personnel and strong scientific research capabilities, which can ensure that they can provide customers with high-quality products that can be based on the market. Appropriate models will be launched in time for demand and changes. A set of data shows that in 1988, Santoni’s first seamless knitting machine was launched. So far, about 20,000 units have been sold, accounting for 90% of the world share of seamless knitting machines. The sales volume has soared by 13,000 in the past five or six years. station. These equipment are mainly used to produce women’s underwear, accounting for 46%, other categories of sportswear accounting for 23%, and men’s underwear accounting for 21%. It can be said that Santoni has a monopoly in the industry.   The reporter learned from feedback from many domestic knitting companies that Santoni’s absolute advantage lies in its perfect sales + service system. Santoni adopts a global sales strategy. According to the global textile distribution trend, it has established several large agents and provides different products according to the development status of different regions. The headquarters of the company gives full support to the agents, and the sales representatives stationed in the company help agents develop the market. Santoni will fund an annual product launch event in Italy for the brands that use its equipment. In recent years, with the rise of China’s seamless industry represented by Yiwu in China, Santoni’s sales focus has begun to shift to China. Hong Kong Zhongda Industrial Co., Ltd. became the general agent of Santoni in China. Zhongda Company not only participates in all the domestic knitting fairs in Jiping, displays its own products, and provides free trials to customers, and has close contact with customers in a direct and direct way. In order to facilitate the purchase of domestic users and reduce costs, Santoni established a production plant in Shanghai, China last year to assemble models specially designed for the Chinese market: MF8-CHN and SM8-TOPl MP. Now the equipment has been offline. While providing equipment, Santoni also fully supports customers in style design. Not only does it provide free training for users to board the board, but also together with Zhongda Company and Shanghai Sangun Group to establish a “Seamless Forming Product R&D Center” to solve customers’ worries and realize resource sharing. Santoni’s promise of “equipment problems are eliminated within 24 hours” is also an important factor for knitting companies to use with confidence. Diversified market competition Although Santoni seamless knitting machine has a large market share, facing the huge market potential in China and the world, it still attracts many equipment manufacturers at home and abroad to share a piece of the pie. Japan OMicro, Germany Metz, and China Taiwan Oudawei have all launched their own seamless knitting machine equipment. They can be seen in some exhibitions this year.What about domestic companies? There is a gap in technology and insufficient funds. It is indeed lack of confidence to fight with companies like Santoni. However, in response to lower-end market demand, domestic companies have also stepped up, such as Shanghai Yansen Machinery Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Shuntian Company. They chose a suitable development model: imitate first, then carry out the characteristic technology of independent innovation; first rotate the equipment, and then show stable and improved performance. For a complete seamless knitting machine, its needle cylinders, knitting needles, yarn feeding equipment, and electrical parts basically have ready-made suppliers. As long as the appropriate specifications are selected for integration, the key is the control part of the machine. Among them, the most important part should be the automatic locking function at the start of manufacturing and narrowing. At present, it is still difficult for domestic companies to achieve this point. They currently produce and supply simple models without locking function, so the price is much cheaper (the price of a Santoni machine is about 500,000 yuan , And domestic equipment is more than 100,000 yuan). Since there is basically no difference in other functions of the equipment, such as electronic jacquard, the price advantage is still welcomed by some domestic enterprises. The reporter also felt this phenomenon in the recent exhibition. However, Santoni responded very quickly. It also launched a similar model-MF8-CHN at the fastest speed. Santoni has realized localized production and large-scale production, and its price is close to the price of domestic models. cheaper.


Post time: Jan-11-2021