Presently, Thailand boasts a fully

Presently, Thailand boasts a fully integrated textile industry. In June 2005, the industry consisted of 18 man-made fiber, 150 spinning and 1,300 weaving enterprises, according to Phongsak Assakul, chairman, Federation of Thai Textile Industries and Thai Textile Manufacturing Association, based in the capital city of Bangkok, reporting at a regional seminar sponsored by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (UNESCAP’s) Trade and Investment Division. There were 400 dyeing, printing, and finishing firms, in addition to 2,500 apparel firms. Those mills employed more than 1 million workers, or 22.1 percent of the country’s entire industrial labor force.

According to the US International Trade Commission’s 2003 report, “Textiles and Apparel: Assessment of the Competitiveness of Certain Foreign Suppliers to the U.S. Market,” the sector’s center is Bangkok. Many of the 1,885 textile producers registered with the Department of Industrial Works (DIW) in 2000 were small or medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and none of those enterprises were state-owned. Among textile producers, 677 firms were weaving enterprises, and 412 were knitting. In the apparel industry that year, there were 2,672 factories registered with the DIW, and, as in the textile subsector, none of those factories were state-owned.

With regard to production capabilities, the country’s installed spinning capacities in 2004 totaled 3.6 million short-staple spindles and 65,000 long-staple spindles, as reported in the 2005 International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics report of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), Switzerland. Those respective capacities were fifth — behind mainland China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, in that order — and ninth, when compared to other countries in Asia and Oceania. Open-end capacity at 52,000 rotors also came in ninth among other industries in that region.

Weaving capacities in 2004, as reported to ITMF, numbered 54,900 shuttleless looms and 74,600 shuttle looms. Respectively, those capacities were second — following mainland China — and fifth — following mainland China, Pakistan, Indonesia and India — in the region. The country had 50,000 filament weaving looms — a capacity that tied with Pakistan and was behind only mainland China, when comparing Thailand to other countries in Asia and Oceania.