German circular knitting machine builder Terrot has said it will stop producing new machines as early as March 2006 if it cannot find a suitable investor.
The announcement comes after Terrot creditors finally tore up a letter of intent to sell the business to Chinese company Jing Wei when talks stalled due to differences over the agreed asking price.
"We are still talking to Jing Wei but our creditors lost patience when our potential partners took too long over the discussion," said Terrot managing director Thomas Archner. The two companies have been in talks since July.
"I am still optimistic that we can strike a deal with Jing Wei, but the decision about whether Terrot
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The company said it would still fulfil its current order book, which it described as "quite good" but said that profit margins were being squeezed by ferocious competition and by unfavourable currency exchange rates. Mr Archner said Terrot was making around 50 machines a month.
"The Euro/dollar exchange rate has become more and more unfavourable to a German textile machine manufacturer selling to a market (Asia) dominated by the US dollar," read a company statement.
The recent announcement means that 20 research and development staff will be laid off from its Stuttgart headquarters. Production in Chemnitz will continue for the time being where 260 people are still employed. 
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