11.17.09
Indian Minister Predicts Growth in Technical Textiles
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with growth of 11%, market size predicted to reach Rs. 66,414 by 2012
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by Devaraj Parthasarathy • contributor
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rnThe size of the domestic technical textiles market is expected to grow 11% per year, reaching Rs. 66,414 crore by 2012, which is about Rs. 37,115 crore at the moment, Thira Maran, Indian textiles Minister, said this at the curtain raiser ceremony of “Technotex-2009, held in New Delhi in August. He said that the size of the global technical textiles industry, which was $107 billion in 2005, is expected to increase to $127 billion by next year.
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rnThe segment has the potential to reach investment and create additional employment opportunities in coming years, said Mr. Maran, at New Delhi on August 18, 2009.” 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, said the Indian textiles minister,” he said.
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rnThe Minister said that the technical textiles represent a multi-disciplinary field with numerous end use applications, and it has penetrated all areas of economic activity including aerospace, agriculture, sports, defense, construction and medical. Based on their end use applications, technical textiles are grouped into 12 segments: Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Meditech, Mobiltech, Packtech, Protech, Sporttech and Oekotech. Technical textiles provide not only better hygiene, safety, durability and comfort to consumers but are also cost-effective in the long run. The lifecycle cost of technical textiles is lower than the traditional materials and textiles, said Mr. Maran.
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rnThe textiles minister also informed attendees that India is the second largest textiles economy in the world after China, however, its contribution to the global technical textiles market is currently insignificant. The technical textiles industry has immense potential in developing countries, particularly China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and India. The changing economic scenario in these countries will boost demand for technical textiles, said the Minister. Considering our highly skilled and scientific/technical manpower and abundant availability of raw materials, we can emerge as a key player in the technical textiles industry, said Mr. Maran.
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rnThe percentage of indigenous production varies drastically across various products, and India is the largest producer of Packtech, Clothtech, Hometech and Sporttech segments of technical textiles. These products are typically commodities, which are not very R&D intensive such as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), tarpaulins, jute carpet backing, hessian, fishnets, surgical dressings and crop covers, said Mr. Maran.
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rnUnlike conventional textiles, which are highly export intensive, technical textiles are import intensive. India annually imports technical textiles worth Rs. 4,000 crore mainly from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Italy, said MrMaran. Many products like baby and adult diapers, polypropylene spunbond fabric for disposables, wipes, protective clothing, hoses, webbings for seat belts are largely imported. There are some large domestic players like SRF, Entermonde Polycoaters, Kusumgarh Corporates, Supreme Nonwovens Pvt. Ltd., Garware Wall Ropes, Century Enka, Techfab India Ltd., Pacific Non Woven, Vardhman, Unimin and a few Multi National Corporations (MNSs), like Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, 3M, SKAPs, Kimberly-Clark have set up manufacturing facilities in India, said Mr. Maran.
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rnWhile stressing an urgent need to exploit this potential, Mr. Maransaidthathis ministry has set up four Centers of Excellence (CoE)—for Agrotech at Mumbai; Geotech at Ahmedabad; Meditech at Coimbatore; and Protech at Ghaziabad; provided coverage of technical textiles under Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS); dereserved sanitary napkins/body diapers from the ambit of the small scale sector and extended fiscal support. Mr. Maran also announced that National Textiles Corporation will conduct feasibility studies in Technical Textiles for starting its unit in Coimbatore, India.
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rnMr. Maranalso emphasized an urgent need to create indigenous manufacturing facilities and increase domestic consumption of technical textiles, and this will largely depend on the institutional users in infrastructure, healthcare, transportation, construction, irrigation, defense, etc.We are aware of the bottlenecks like lack of demand, skilled manpower, competitiveness, testing infrastructure and testing support, affecting the growth of the market of technical textiles, said Mr. Maran. To devise measures to overcome these constraints and to appease various stakeholders, especially the institutional users, about the application, investment potential and benefits of technical textiles, the Ministry of Textiles, in partnership with FICCI, held four workshops in September—Meditech on September 01, 2009, Protech on September 15, 2009, Agrotech on September 18, 2009, and Geotech on September 23, 2009, at Hotel Shangri-La’s, New Delhi, said Mr. Maran.