Awareness of TT is of importance: Technotex

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Advantage India: Emerging Global Manufacturing Hub for Technical Textiles’ and it made an attempt to chalk out a roadmap to make India a global manufacturing hub for technical textiles.

The 6th edition of Technotex 2017, an international exhibition and conference on technical textiles, that took place recently in Mumbai underscored the importance of technical textiles as a driver for growth of the Indian textile industry. Apart from big players, including Welspun, Ginni Filaments, Supreme Nonwoven, Alok Textiles, Arvind Group and others, there were also small players making initiatives to gain a foothold in the emerging fields.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Advantage India: Emerging Global Manufacturing Hub for Technical Textiles’ and it made an attempt to chalk out a roadmap to make India a global manufacturing hub for technical textiles. There was a CEO Forum, in which all the stalwarts from industries, which have a stake in technical textiles, revealed the realities prevailing in textile industry. They focused on steps to increase the consumption and production of technical textiles.Dr Kavita Gupta, Textiles Commissioner, lent a patient hearing to the suggestions of the CEOs and MDs and assured them all-out help from the Government to promote the growth of the technical textile industry.

Says Yogesh Kusumgar, CMD of Kusumgar Corporates: “The call of the day is to create awareness amongst the users’ segments for the growth and consumption of Technical Textiles. Awareness needs to be created with users’ segments that technical textiles can replace conventional technology and materials and products so produced can perform better with cost advantages.”

“It is felt entrepreneurs in India need to change their mind sets and be more strategical and logical than to adopt conventional and conservative approach while investing in Technical Textiles. We need to realise that the return on investment will not commence from not from the first year but may be from third year onwards.”

According to the Knowledge paper released by Wazir Advisors, the global technical textile market is a growing market and currently estimated at $145 billion. The US is the largest import market for technical textiles products accounting for 17 per cent share followed by China, Germany and UK with a share of 10 per cent, 8 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively. China is the largest exporter of technical textile products with a share of 24 per cent followed by the US, Germany and Republic of Korea with a share of 10 per cent, 9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.

The Indian market for technical textiles is estimated at $12 billion in 2015-16, growing at a CAGR of around 12 per cent and expected to reach $22 billion by 2020-21. Packtech is the largest segment with 42 per cent share of the market, followed by indutech, mobiltech and hometech. India exported technical textiles products worth $2,078 million in 2015-16, growing at a CAGR of 16 per cent since 2007-08. Majority of exports from India are commodity products which are not very research and development intensive. Indutech, packtech, and hometech are the largest exported segments, which have a combined share of around 85 per cent in the total exports of technical textiles. The Knowledge Paper spelled out the five sectors which have shown a considerable growth in technical textiles agrotech, meditech, mobiltech, sportech and protech.

• Agrotech: With the focused efforts by the Government to promote use of agro textiles through various schemes of the National Horticultural Mission (NHM) and National Horticultural Board (NHB), the demand for shade nets are expected to grow in the coming years.

• Meditech: Growing healthcare industry, increased spend by consumers for well-being, increasing number working women, rising awareness on personal hygiene and sanitation and higher disposable incomes are the key growth drivers for meditech.

• Mobiltech: Automobile industry is a key contributor to mobiltech growth as high-end vehicles, commercial vehicles and two wheelers sales are rising with increased comfort requirement. Air bags, tyre cord fabric, sun visors/sun blinds, usage in airlines (upholstery), helmets, etc. are the key categories of growth.

• Protech: Protective wears like fire-retardant apparel, outer protective clothing, bullet proof jackets, high altitude clothing for armed forces, etc. are the highest growing categories for the segment.

• Sportech: Increasing interest towards sports and outdoor leisurely activities has led to immense growth in sports goods and equipment.

“The Indian technical textile industry has witnessed a significant growth of 16 per cent from 2001-10, and is expected to grow at the rate of 20 per cent to touch $30 billion over the next five years from around $23.6 billion currently. Taiwan is one of the very few countries who can fulfil India’s requirements as Taiwan’s textile sector is the leader in technology innovations and manufacturers in the world with a strong research and development segment. Technotex is a perfect platform to explore business opportunities under this sector in India” says Judy Yang, VP, Taiwan Textile Federation.

She further adds: “India is a very dynamic market with a lot of potential and scope for Taiwanese companies to expand their export market. Taiwanese technical and functional textile companies are keen to penetrate their products in India with the growing demand and consumption of technical textiles. The multiple industries and sectors Taiwan is focusing on are sports goods and apparel, rainwear, outdoor tents and canopies, automotive, defence, police, etc.