Market Insights

Technical Textiles in India: Styling Up New Approaches

Posted on 29 January, 2010 | Tags:

India's textile industry has a vast area to grow in the technical and no-woven sectors. By means of a hefty support of the Government, preface of approved legislations, the progress in trends and the appreciation of the need for further skilled public, India ranks on the perimeter of diverse futuristic activities in the industry

 

Technical textiles are chiefly the supplies with products that are used for their technical performance and functional properties. They are employed as a constituent of another product to advance its feat. Currently, technical textiles are in order to augment the routine of public in the shape of hygiene products, medical or hospital garments, environmental textile and materials for instance filters, infrastructure textiles like buildtech and geotextiles, etc. These textiles supply superior hygiene, protection, resilience and ease to consumers but also biodegradable solutions for a long run.

Areas of applications
The technical textiles cover an enormous part of end-use function and monetary activities. Based on their end use applications these textiles are grouped hooked on twelve fragments, like Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Meditech, Mobiltech, Packtech, Protech, Sporttech and Oekotech. They have their handling in the fields like aerospace, agriculture, sports, defense, construction and medical. The soaring performance fibers, yarns, woven, knitted, non-woven, composite materials also wholly finished end-use products such as packaged wipes, finished diapers, finished geotextiles and even functional finished apparel materials come under this group.

Market size
Domestic market size of technical textiles in India is expected to grow at the rate of 11 percent per annum and may reach Rs. 66,414 crore by 2012 whereas its global market size is also expected to increase to USD 127 billion by next year. "The segment has a potential to attract investment and create additional employment opportunities in coming years. We expect investment of Rs 5,000 crore by 2012 and employment, which is approximately 9 lakh at present, to increase to 12 lakh by 2012," says Thiru Maran, Textile Minister, Government of India.

Imports and Exports
India imports technical textiles worth Rs 4,000 crore predominantly from countries such as China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Italy. Numerous products like baby and adult diapers, polypropylene spunbond fabric for disposals, wipes, protective clothing, hoses, webbings for seat belts are frequently imported. There are some immense domestic players like SRF, Entermonde Polycoaters, Kusumgarh Corporates, Supreme Nonwovens Pvt Ltd, Garware Wall Ropes, Century Enka, Techfab India Ltd, Pacific Non Woven, Vardhman, and Unimin etc. Various Multi National Corporations (MNSs) like Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, 3M, SKAPs, Kimberly Clark have set up mechanized amenities in India.
As per the Government reports, India is the second-largest textiles economy in the world following China.  The country has sufficient assortment of bleached cotton, polypropylene and polyester viscose yam and materials. But high-tenacity, polyester and specialty flame retardant and ballistic protective materials like Kevlar, Nomex and broad-spectrum antimicrobials are to be imported. These are chiefly for resistance and medical application. The Indian administration ought to mind their zero-duty importation. The locally obtainable coir and jute entail to be used for producing eco-friendly products.
" The market of technical textiles need a good pick up as there is a requirement of proper R & D work. The field of sports, automotive and building textiles and even in the medical section has lots of hopes to progress. In the garments part, the non-woven textile is yet to cover a vast area. Especially, the Indian traditional saris are a big competitor. A good nature of fabric is necessary to have a growing market of the technical textiles in India," says Dr Talukdar, Vice President, Kusumgar Corporates.

Schemes Ahead
The technical textiles industry has been employed under the  Technology Up gradation Fund Scheme(TUFS).  "Creating awareness is the major part that the Government is working on to develop the market of technical textiles in order to attract more of investors into it. In this regards, it is organizing workshops in various states, to attract entrepreneurs and stakeholders. The field of medical textiles has huge growth prospects in India as well as abroad. The government of India has also planned to implement the Scheme for Growth ad Development of technical textiles (SGDT) and it has also generated the Baseline survey to get the information on the number of units, type of units, type of products produced, investment, turnover etc," says  Balu Chamy, Assistant Director, Office of Textiles Commissioner.
"Currently, the Ministry of Textiles has come up with four Center of Excellence(CoE) that will cover  the fields of Agortech, Geotech, Meditech and Buildtech. The Bombay Textiles Research Association (BTRA) has  been recognized as CoE in Geotech  whereas the Synthetic &Art Silk Milk Research Association (SASMIRA) is for Agrotech with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and NAVSARI Agriculture University as knowledge partners. In addition, the North Indian Textile Research Association (NITRA) and IIT have been identified  as CoE in the area of Protech whereas  South India Textiles Research Association (SITRA) and AC College Technology in the field of Meditech. The Government has also launched new websites related to the information about the textiles industry," adds Balu. All these CoEs have been reserved under an exercise to showcase the potentiality of the sector for mutual industry along with the end-users.

Way Forward 
In view of the potential of  intensification of  technical textiles in the country, the Government  of India   has formed an Expert Committee on Technical Textiles (ECTT)  to appraise the category of the industry in the country and devise an action graph to utilize the prospects obtainable in support of this industry in the domestic and international markets.
According to ECTT the  industry of technical textiles require wrapping a vast area to investigate its market, requirement and evolution. The reformation of fabrics and yarns to high-tech products, a good theoretical and technical know-how and new promotion thoughts  will be the corridor to nurture towards the subsequent segment for  the technical textiles industry. The administration  and other stakeholders need to take mind the matters to generate a well-built policy to link up with worldwide trade bodies to purpose information on existing market situation of the industry. As indicated by USA-based Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), the world market for industrial textiles in 2010 is 120 billion dollars. Presently, China adds 46 percent  to the US import market in industrial fabrics while India contributes 7 percent presently.
The assorted breeds of novel products that are developed by  the adjacent countries like China, Pakistan in industrial textiles  and an introduction of green sustainable next-generation technical textiles must be initiated in the Indian souk. Currently, India is a leader in polyester production, world's largest producer of viscose rayon and second-largest manufacturer of cotton. Thus, for the maturity of these textiles there is a want to widen supplementary raw materials like elevated tenacity polyester fibers, high performance antiballistic fibers for example para-aramid fibers such as Kevlar and Twaron and high tenacity polyelhylene, etc. The Ministry of Textiles has considered applying National Fibre Policy by the end of 2009 that can assist  to accomplish the raw material supplies for the budding technical textiles division in India. Under the numerous strategies of TUFS the requirement of hefty machineries has been taken care of, yet, machinery for the production of high-tenacity yarn is not enclosed under this proposal. High-tenacity yarn is mandatory for the production of a number of technical textiles items in the country and indigenous production should be optimistic by covering it under TUFS. Lack of excellent workers is also a cause of sluggish expansion pace of technical textiles in India  and consequently, there is a call to create a team of professionals and persuade to set up technical textiles units. Setting up private - public partnerships for imparting training in unlike characteristics of manufacturing of technical textiles items, predominantly non-woven fabric, is also one of the most important segments of the technical textiles industry. The amenities must be augmented in TRAs & IITs for short-term and  long-term courses in technical textiles. Studies should also be institutionalized to incorporate all potential fibres in the Indian Pharmacoepia.

-(Info collected from PIB  and  Office of Textile Commissioner  by Mousumi Ghosal)