The pandemic put the heaviest load, but the situation was not rosy even before Covid-19. The virus has further impacted the production of companies specializing in wool, cotton, and linen yarns, which, undergoing a significant slowdown, have also seen their turnover drop. According to the estimates of the Study Centre of Confindustria Moda for Sistema Moda Italia, the sector suffered an overall contraction of 22.7%: both wool spinning, which accounts for over 80% of total turnover, and cotton and linen spinning are dealing with a negative trend. The figures have also been affected by the weakening of raw material prices: the Awex Eastern wool indicator, after a -10.5% in 2019, dropped by 31.5% (2020), while the ‘A’ cotton index decreased by 10.0% in 2019 and reached -9.2% in 2020. The minus symbol can also be read in the export data (-19.4%), imports (-29.0%), and the domestic market, which recorded a 29.1% decrease. No good news for exports of carded and combed wool yarns (-25.9% and -24.4%), chemical-wool yarns (-10.9%), and knitting (-1.8%). Cotton at -20.9% and linen at -19.7% do not contribute positively to a clearly difficult situation. Human resources also paid a price – directly and indirectly – despite the extensive use of social safety nets: wool spinning mills recorded a 4.6% reduction of employees in the first quarter, 5.5% in the second, and 4.3% in the third.
