Textile machinery output dips 5%, import up 1,447 cr

In his inaugural speech, at the 56th Annual General Meeting of the Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (India) at Hotel Trident in Mumbai, R Rajendran, Chairman of TMMA, said that the Indian economy in 2015-16 was the shining example of one of the fastest growing economies and oasis of the world in the wake of global slowdown fueled by fall in oil and commodity prices. The GDP grew at 7.6 per cent in 2015-16, continued till date, the highest in last five years as against 7.2 per cent clocked in 2014-15. There was macroeconomic stability and prudent fiscal management. The fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent has been met and a fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent has been set.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST Reform) Bill a major Tax reforms is likely to give a further boost to the GDP growth. It is meant to promote ease of doing business as it converts the country into a single market by harmonizing central levies and state taxes at the point of consumption and it will benefit the people in the long run and spur economic growth and boost Indian exports.

Said the TMMA Chairman: “The Indian textile machinery sector has stagnated in research and development consequently the growth in this sector has been marginal and no new units are being established. The scope for this industry is vast. The “Make in India” programme provides an opportunity to expand the base and build new avenues.” The textile engineering industry has currently an estimated annual installed capacity of Rs 11,000 crore per annum, said Rajendran.

The utilisation of capacity had decreased from 63 per cent to 60 per cent in 2015-16 as compared to the preceding year due to high import. The demand recession faced by the industry had severely affected the capacity utilisation. Import of textile machinery has risen from Rs 8,858 crore during 2014-15 to Rs 10,305 crore during 2015-16. “The upswing in the imports might be due to improper HS Code used by the importers. Besides, there are also imports of second hand shuttleless looms as well as low cost, low tech shuttleless loom from China in large numbers. The present nil import duty coupled with TUFS benefits actually helped the low tech Chinese manufacturers in a big way. Subsidy on second hand machinery, though discontinued in the present ATUFS, free import of second hand machinery and low cost looms at subsidised rate created an unfavorable situation for the domestic manufacturers,” he opined.

Saying that the exports during 2015-16 had been reported to be at Rs 2,673 crore as against Rs 2,466 crore achieved during 2014-15, he TMMA Chairman added that private data source however indicated the export during 2015-16 as Rs 2,572 crore.

However, there are some signs of improvement now. We hope that there could be better position during 2016-17. The reduction in the allocation of funds for the TUF caused backlog of arrears and left the textile industry starving. Unless the TUFS benefits were made available and the backlog cleared the investment to be made by the textile industry is likely to be affected.

Rajendran disclosed that the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) has formulated draft policy outlining “Vision, Strategy and Action Plan for Indian Textile and Apparel Sector”. The policy is highly ambitious however achievable if suggestions in the draft policy are implemented by all stake holders, in general and related government agencies, in particular.

He revealed that for promoting innovation and Research & Development the following projects have been undertaken: Development of High Tech Shuttleless Loom in India: Common Engineering Facility Centre; Capital Goods Sector Skill Council.

R&D in TEI needs a big boost: Dr Kavita Gupta

In her speech at the TMMA meet, Dr Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner, said the textile machinery manufacturing sector is not one of our very strong areas. “We require to develop it further and further.

We are strong in the manufacturing sector of spinning, but we are not very developed in weaving, knitting and technical textile sector. We require to develop these sectors as well. The aim of this award is to try and motivate people to come forward and develop these technologies.”

Dr Kavita said: “I would like to call upon the industry on this occasion to build up the roadmap and see how exactly we would like to proceed in terms of developing the manufacturing of textile machinery. Would they like to go into JVs, would they like to go into collaborations, would they like to go into R&D for the development of this sector?”

“The Government is creating market for you through the TUF and A-TUF scheme. We are actually subsidising the creation of your markets and we are not very happy in these markets,” she added. Most of the machines in India are imported machines including the all the powerloom, rapier looms, shuttleless looms. “I am glad that the efforts are made for the growth of this sector. Very soon, the Government may come up with a programme where you will have your own shuttleless looms. We have to replace the old looms with new ones. Right now we have 25 lakh old looms. Even if we have to replace 2 looms to 1 or 4 looms to 1, even then we require a huge amount of looms”, she said.

The Textile Commissioner said: “Technical textiles is a sunrise sector. It is a small sector with about 2,200 units. The machines that are been used are all imported. Here again, we are building up the sector. We are bringing out encouraging schemes in geo textiles. We are encouraging agro textiles, we are encouraging protective textiles. But are we in a position to meet the growing demands in this sector? The technologies required in any of these is very high.” She pointed out that the engineering exports have shown a definitely significant growth, and that last year growth was about 18-20 per cent. “Now if engineering is doing so well, then why is textile machinery manufacturing not really progressing at the same pace? What is lacking?,” she questioned.

TMMA office bearers 2016-17

R. Rajendran, Management Advisor, Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd, Coimbatore has been re-elected as the Chairman of TMMA for the year 2016-2017. He has been the Member of its Executive Council since 2005-2006.

Joined Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd, Coimbatore in 1971 as an Internal Auditor and has held various positions. In February 2011, he was inducted into the Board of Directors of the company and served the organisation in the capacity of Director – Finance till his retirement on August 5, 2016. He has been involved in strategic managerial decision making for the growth of the organisation including mergers and acquisitions. Now he is continuing as Management Advisor. Currently he is Director in LMW Textile Machinery (Suzhou), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lakshmi Machine Works Limited in China, Vice-Chairman and Steering Committee Member of India International Textile Machinery Exhibition Society, Mumbai. R Rajendran, Chairman

Mehul Trivedi, Managing Director, The Indian Card Clothing Co Ltd, Pune has been re-elected as the First Vice-Chairman of TMMA for the year 2016-2017. He has been the Member of its Executive Council since 2007-2008. Before becoming the MD at Indian Card Clothing Co, he was a Trainee Solicitor at Amhurst Brown Martin & Nicholson, UK, and subsequently practiced as a Solicitor with S J Berwin and Co London. Trivedi has attended a number of Management Programmes at different universities overseas from 1994 to 2012 on various Management topics. Mehul Trivedi, First Vice-Chairman

Pratik Rajnikant Bachkaniwala, Director, Palod Himson Machines Pvt Ltd, Surat has been re-elected as the Hon. Treasurer of TMMA for the year 2016-2017. He has been the Member of its Executive Council since 2009-2010. Bachkaniwala is the third generation entrepreneur and a family member of the Surat based Himson group. Before becoming the whole time Director at various group companies at Himson, he had taken work experience for purchase and vendor development, production planning and marketing and customer services from 2002 to 2004. He has been managing three units of the group independently since 2004. Pratik Bachkaniwala, Hon. Treasurer

Masafumi Kunito, Managing Director of Kirloskar Toyota Textile Machinery Pvt Ltd., Bangalore (KTTM) has been re-elected as the second Vice-Chairman of TMMA for the year 2016-2017. He has been the Member of its Executive Council from 2012-2013.

Kunito joined Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, now changed its name as Toyota Industries Corporation, Japan (TICO) in April, 1982 after his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Doshisha University located in Kyoto prefecture Japan and rose to hold the position of Managing Officer since June, 2012.

Kunito joined KTTM as Deputy Managing Director in June, 2009 and he has been promoted as Managing Director of KTTM in July, 2012. KTTM manufactures Textile Ring Frame Spinning Machines. He has rich professional experience of more than 30 years in textile division working with Toyota Industries Corporation. Masafumi Kunito, Second Vice-Chairman