Editorial: The Way Ahead for Technical Textile Producers

Few people will have disagreed with Michael Jänecke, the brand manager of Techtextil1, when he said at an international symposium2in October 2009 that the year had been one of "turmoil".

Four months later, the market was showing signs of improvement but the future remained clouded with uncertainty in many countries. In the USA, the economy was buoyant in the last three months of 2009, having grown at an annualised rate of 5.9%. However, high unemployment and fears of a renewed downturn have left consumer spending growth subdued.

In the EU, the recovery was threatened in the early months of 2010 by a lack of confidence as the euro was held down by Greece's struggle with its vast budget deficit.

Within the EU, the UK economy started to recover in the last three months of 2009 following six quarters of decline-the longest period on record. But growth was a mere 0.3% so the best that can be said is that recovery has, to say the least, been tentative.

On the other hand, the outlook for exports is positive because of the weakness of sterling, and this should benefit technical textile manufacturers in particular.