Saurer is present in all spinning markets today

Martin Kueppers, Senior Vice President – Sales, Saurer, speaks on the recent record delivery of 2.5 millionth Autoconer spindles in India, and its outcome from two of the major events in textile fairs – ITMA Asia in China and India ITME.

With 160 years of experience, Saurer has devoted immensely to improving the production processes for Indian textile industry.

What has contributed to the recent successes in this market?

Saurer product offering is an excellent fit for the Indian market; high automation, high productivity and excellent quality. Our local sales and service team is working closely with customer together to find solution for the challenges they face from their customers in the textile value chain.

All the new products introduced at ITMA 2015 in Milano have been well received by customers and we have received increasing number of orders from India. In addition, we have opened our new manufacturing unit in Karjan and are now able to supply Zinser ring spinning machines made in India. We have also increased our production capacity on Texparts weighting arms and high speed spindles in India to be able to respond to market needs.

The E3 – Triple Added Value Concept. How has this performed for the Indian industry?

The E³ concept has been a success worldwide as well as in India especially. An excellent example of this is the new Schlafhorst winding machine Autoconer 6; with energy consumption reduced by 20 per cent, power on demand with intelligent vacuum control, up to 2 x 6 per cent more productivity, top production speeds with the Eco-Drum-Drive System, minimum personnel requirement and smart sensor technology and auto calibration this has clearly responded to the needs of the Indian customers. Saurer is also the sole company who can offer from one hand automation from roving over ring to winding. Today’s competitive world demands more and more automaton.

Other examples of E³ further down the value chain are the staple yarn twisting machines of Volkmann with the energy saving spindle family and the Saurer Embroidery Epoca 7 – the latest development in shuttle embroidery that impresses with its increase in productivity of up to 20 per cent and its embroidery speed of up to 700 rpm.

With the recent record delivery of 2.5 millionth Autoconer spindles in India, Saurer has crossed a new milestone.

Tell us more about Autoconer’s success in India.

The Indian customers have played a major role in shaping the Autoconer success story ever since 1962 when the Autoconer 107 was launched. Saurer Schlafhorst has delivered almost all key players in India and has also been prominently participating in large projects in India with different generations of the Autoconer. Hence the decision to firstly introduce the Autoconer 6 was firstly introduced in India during the customer days in February 2015, already before it was shown at any exhibition, was logical. Autoconer 6 has enjoyed a great success ever since.

Saurer attended two major fairs — ITMA Asia in China & ITME in India — in two of its major markets. What are the changes it has noticed in the recent times?

Due to increasing cost in China there have been major changes in the yarn producing Industry. The industry is moving westwards and partly even outside of China. The new upcoming units, i.e., in Xinjiang province are larger, more efficient and always fully automated. Although one third of the worlds investments in ring spinning are still made in China, the focus has been less on highest quality find yarnd

SUN — Service Unlimited has opened up limitless possibilities in service. How is this faring in India?

SUN – SERVICE UNLIMITED is a bundle of differentiated services that add real value to Saurer machinery throughout its entire life cycle. Our staff, accompanied by state-of-the-art tools offer specifically tailored services and support to our customers.

The future is clear, with India showing hopes in long term, but some despair in short term. Is it so? What are Saurer’s strategies for this emerging market?

Saurer is present in all spinning markets today – this is a pre-requisite for success. Especially as the yarn market has gone through perpetual changes in the last 20+ years in terms of the spun raw materials shares as well as equipment development and geographical changes, the machinery manufacturers need to stay flexible and keep their ears very close to the market.

Right now the short term view in India might look a bit sluggish in spinning but once the long due expansion in downstream will start to fully utilize its capacities, the demand for yarn will again be there and like we all know, fashion is ever changing so there are many options that may come forth that we are not yet looking at right now. Saurer is in general focusing very much on India and we have a new production unit for ring spinning in Karjan so we are well prepared.