More than 80 exhibitors from the global textile industry set up shop on at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

The occasion on Tuesday was the sixth installment of SPINEXPO New York, a textile industry event that brings together an international pool of buyers and sellers.

Nine countries are represented at this year's show, which runs until Thursday, with more than three-quarters of the total group of exhibitors from the Greater China region.

China is the world's leading exporter of textiles and clothing, and exports of those goods accounted for close to $100 billion in trade in 2012, according to the most recent data from the World Trade Organization.

Susan Kwong, a Hong Kong-based senior sales executive with Ningbo Consinee Woolen Textile Co Ltd, said that the event gives designers, both American and international, a chance to see Chinese yarn products up close and personal.

"SPINEXPO in the US market allows people to see what the Consinee Group is doing, and of course it also gives us another opportunity to sell yarn to customers,"Kwong said Tuesday in an interview with China Daily. "We provide the yarn and the designer does the rest.”

The Consinee Group, the parent company of Ningbo Consinee, is the biggest exporter of high quality cashmere yarn in China, according to SPINEXPO data. Its headquarters are in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, and the company also has offices in Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.

Textile manufacturing is a sequence of processes that convert raw natural fibers like cotton or wool into yarn suitable for use in various products, according to the National Cotton Council of America.

SPINEXPO also hosts another event in Shanghai, which is in its 23rd year, but Kwong said part of the reason for hosting a US show is because "there are not a lot of people who are willing to travel from the US to Shanghai.”

"This is not the first time we've come here, but normally we stay behind one more week after the show so that we can go to some of our clients' offices to help build the relationship,"she said.

SPINEXPO takes place twice a year in Shanghai and once a year in New York. The Shanghai edition runs in March and September; the September show in 2013 drew 220 exhibitors from 15 countries.

Organizers are planning the September 2014 event at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Centre.

Tina Lee, deputy general manager of marketing for Huafu Top Dyed Melange Yarn Co Ltd — a global leader in mélange yarn, or yarn produced through the blending of differently colored fibers — said that SPINEXPO was much smaller when it started in the 1990s.

"In Shanghai SPINEXPO is a huge event, and the exhibitor and visitor numbers are much higher,"she said Tuesday in an interview with China Daily. But she also said there's "a very professional vibe"to this year's event in New York.

Jewel Di Paolo, executive director of Lana Reale, a New York-based yarn supplier, said: "People come from South America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, etc, to attend SPINEXPO, so we have customers visiting from everywhere. New York is a city for anyone, and you can really make it your home during these three days."

"New York City is a place where designers come to get inspired," she said. "At SPINEXPO, we have a huge variety and that's why I believe the show has a much bigger impact than any other yarn show in the world."

Some of the exhibitors taking part in SPINEXPO New York, a textile industry event, are shown Tuesday at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The three-day show, which ends Thursday, brings together an international pool of buyers and sellers. JACK FREIFELDER / CHINA DAILY