Publish Date: August 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The 2026 Knitted Fabric Mills Market Report covers the $1.2 billion industry which operates with specialized production equipment creating looped structures primarily for apparel, home textiles, and technical applications requiring stretch characteristics. Competitive structure encompasses both specialized circular knitting operations and vertically integrated textile companies with knitting divisions. Market demands increasingly emphasize comfort performance, sustainable material composition, and specialized technical properties beyond traditional aesthetics. Manufacturers face significant challenges balancing machine utilization, material consistency, pattern flexibility, and tariff implications affecting both yarn imports and finished fabric exports. Successful companies differentiate through advanced knitting technologies creating specialized structures, technical expertise optimizing performance characteristics, quality management systems ensuring consistency, and increasingly sustainability initiatives incorporating recycled or organic materials in a sector where technical capabilities, production flexibility, and increasingly environmental credentials determine competitive positioning across diverse knitted fabric applications.
Knitted Fabric Mills Industry Description
Knitted Fabric Mills produce textiles by forming interconnected loops of yarn using automated knitting machines. Companies operate circular, flat bed, or warp knitting equipment that creates fabrics with inherent stretch, drape, and conformability characteristics. Manufacturing processes include yarn feeding, loop formation through needle systems, take-down, fabric relaxation, and finishing operations that create knitted textiles with specific structures and properties. These businesses serve apparel, automotive, medical, and industrial markets. The industry continuously improves production speed, pattern complexity, and increasingly focuses on technical knitted structures, performance characteristics like moisture management and compression, and specialized constructions that leverage knitting’s unique ability to create engineered structures with specific zones of stretch, support, and breathability.
NAICS Code: 31324
Number of Companies: 134
Number of Plants / Facilities: 136
Total Employees: 5,767
Market Size: $1.2 billion
TARIFF IMPACT (Summer 2025 – Download Report for Updated Analysis)
This report has in-depth analysis on the recent US tariff changes on material costs, quantifying import dependencies, tariff exposure rates, and key source countries for the knitted fabric mills sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $110 million
Relative Tariff Impact: SEVERE
Knitted Fabric Mills Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Knitted Fabric Mills Market Report is 63 pages of deep insights into the trends, dynamics, and forecasts shaping the industry. Professionals leverage this market report to develop a deep understanding of the market for business strategy, planning, forecasting, benchmarking, industry analysis, valuations, identifying organizational inefficiencies, financial analysis, and more.
With more than one hundred industry analyses and data sets covering trends from 2017 to 2025 and forecasts for 2026 and 2030, this report is one of the comprehensive assessments of the industry. The report includes sales & expense trends, 26 expense categories, extensive financial analysis, forecasts, inventory statistics, composition of balance sheets, segmentation by business size and structure, top 50 companies analysis, production material costs, profit margin analysis, state metrics analysis, plant productivity benchmarks, organizational breakdown, inflation trend benchmarks, wage analysis, employee productivity benchmarks, and numerous other data sets.
Below are a few page images from the report and check out the table of contents for a complete overview.
Report Table of Contents
Review the table of contents to understand the extensive statistical data sets in this report and why thousands of executives, consultants, bankers, accountants, and other professionals trust Kentley Insights for their market research needs.
For this report, the core data is sourced from comprehensive business, operational, and economic surveys conducted by government and private institutions and filled out by a statistically significant number of companies in the knitted fabric mills industry. Our forecasts take into account historical trends, industry dynamics, and our macroeconomic projections.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources, Industry Definition & Market Commentary
4 – Market Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Market Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH ANALYSIS
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies & Facilities
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
– Percentage of Revenue from Product Lines
10 – BCG Matrix – Net Income vs. Revenue Growth
– Subsectors vs. Industry
11 – Total Sales by Month & Year
– 2021-2025 Sales per Month
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year
– Inventory Value per Month for 2021-2025
13 – Months of Inventory
– Months of Inventory per Month for 2021-2025
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Concentration Segments by Top Companies
– Business Size Segments
– Business Structure Segments
15 – Market Size by State
16 – Market Size as a % of State GDP
17 – Sales as a % of State Manufacturing
18 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
19 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
– Business Size Segments – 1-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-250, & 250+ employees
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
20 – Segmentation by Concentration (Top 50 Companies)
– Concentration Segments – Top 4, 5-8, 9-20, & 21-50 companies
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
21 – Market Share of Top 50 Companies
22 – Subsector Market Share of Top 50 Companies
23 – Segmentation by Business Structure
– Business Structure Segments – C-Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships, & Sole Proprietorships
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
24 – Revenue per Company by State
– Revenue per Company
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
28 – Subsector Growth
– Sales and 5-Year Growth
29 – Subsector Statistics
– Sales per Company & Facility, and 5-Year Growth
30 – Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Companies & Locations
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Employee Statistics
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
– 5-Year Growth
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities per Company
– Employees per Company
– 5-Year Growth
SECTION TWO
COST, CAPITAL & PROFIT BENCHMARKS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
– Percent of Companies that are Profitable
– Average Net Income as a Percent of Revenue
– 10 of the Top Financial Ratios
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– Current & Non-Current Assets: 14 Categories
– Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth: 13 Categories
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX
– Revenue vs. OPEX Growth
– OPEX as a Percent of Revenue
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Facility
– Revenue vs. Expenses Growth per Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– Employee Expenses: payroll, insurance, pension, defined contribution plans, fringe benefits, temps
– Cost of Materials: materials, parts, containers, packaging, cost of resale, electricity and fuels, contract work
– Buildings and Equipment: capex for equipment, rental or lease for equipment, capex for buildings and structures, rental or leases, repair and maintenance
– Other Operating Expenses: professional and technical services, IT software and hardware, data processing and communications, advertising, refuse removal, taxes and license fees, other
-Inventory Breakdown: finished goods, work-in-progress, materials and supplies
40 – Production Material Costs & Tariff Analysis
– Top Production Material Costs Breakdown
– Industry & Material Tariff Analysis – % of costs, import %, tariff costs, source countries
41 – Producer Pricing Index
– Annual PPI – Indexed to 2006
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
– Monthly PPI Figures for the Past 4 Years
42 – Plant Utilization & Hours
– Plant Utilization Rate
– Plant Operational Hours per Week
– 2022-2025 Historical Figures by Quarter
43 – Reasons for Non-Full Production
– 7 Categories Quarterly Survey Results for Past 2 Years
44 – Productivity & Employment
– Revenue per Employee
– Total Employees
– Employees per Company
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
– Absolute & 5-Year Growth
48 – Payroll Analysis
– Payroll per Employee, Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
49 – Payroll per Company by Segments
50 – Payroll per Plant by Segments
51 – Payroll per Employee by Segments
52 – Payroll per Employee by State
53 – Organizational Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
– Management & Finance
– Sales & Marketing
– Technology, Engineering, Science
– Service, Support & Training
– Operations
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Management & Finance
– Sales, Service & Marketing
– Operations
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
57 – Employees per Company by Segments
58 – Employees per Plant by Segments
59 – Facilities per Company by Segments
60 – Total Employment by State
61 – Population to Every Employee by State
62 – Employees per Facility by State
63 – Overview of Kentley Insights
Download a Sample Report
Below is a free sample report download. The 2026 Knitted Fabric Mills Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Warp knit fabrics, knit and finished in same establishment
Weft (circular) knit fabrics, knit and finished in the same establishment (excluding hosiery)
Weft (circular) knit fabrics, greige goods (excluding hosiery)
Warp knit fabrics, greige goods
Knit fabric mills, nsk, total
Warp knit fabrics, lace and net goods, contract and commission receipts for knitting only or knitting and finishing
Weft (circular) knit fabrics, nonapparel type, knitting only or knitting and finishing (excluding hosiery) on contract or commission
Lace and net goods, all leavers and Nottingham lace machine products, including bobbinets and barmen laces (excluding raschel lace machine products and burned-out laces)
Other nonapparel warp knit end products (including knitted towels and washcloths), excluding fabrics, lace, and net goods
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Yarns, excluding acrylic
Artificial and synthetic fibers and filaments, including nylon, polyolefin, polyester, acrylic, and other noncellulosic fibers
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Acrylic yarns
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Textile Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Miscellaneous Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Sewing Machine Operators
Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
General and Operations Managers
Industrial Engineers, Including Health and Safety
Industrial Production Managers
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Office Clerks, General
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks
Customer Service Representatives
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers
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