• Medium and small level garment companies have to depend on either fabrics from powerloom weavers or resort to importing their fabrics.
• The major garment manufacturers, who produce branded products make long-term understanding with the large composite mills to procure fabrics matching their requirements.
• The knitted garment manufacturers mostly source their fabrics from Indian companies except specialised products such as polar fleece, waffle, Iycra jersey, etc.
• All physical and chemical properties of indigenous as well as imported fabrics are found to be equally good.
• The consistency of fabric dye shades are better in imported fabrics as compared to indigenous fabrics. To improve dye shade consistency, there is an immediate need for local units to follow the continuous processing technique and use computerised colour mixing machinery.
• To reduce import of fabrics by the garment industry, the weaving and processing sector should be strengthened further.
  
  

Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to the garment units for participating in the study and providing necessary information for the survey. They are also thankful to Ms Indra Doraiswamy, Research Adviser, SITRA for her valuable suggestions and guidance during the study and preparation of the report. Our special thanks are also due to the staff of physics, chemistry, knitting and weaving divisions for conducting various tests during the study.

References

1)    Statistical Details from Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata.

2)    Compendium of Textile Statistics 2005 - 2006 (Office of the Textile Commissioner, Mumbai).

About the Authors:

The authors are associated with the South India Textile Research Assciation, Coimbatore.

Appendix

List of Tables