Source: Pakistan Textile Journal, January2009

The article is written with an objectiveto highlight production and manufacturing process of knitted fabrics forforeign markets. The existing working conditions of Pakistan's hosiery andknitwear industry and issues pertaining about the industry's performanceregarding the fabric-making process, details of fiber, yarn, count, knitvariation selection are discussed in this article. The study was carried out in12 hosiery industries of Karachi located in three different industrial areas.The results indicate that cotton fiber, carded yarn, 10-20/s count and doubleknit are very popular in the manufacture of knitted hosiery fabric. Suddenelectricity failure and old mechanical process are main problems being faced bythis industry. However, despite the problems indicated, Pakistan's hosiery knitwear industry is still giving an average 50% increase in growth rateper year.

Key words: Carded yarn, Double knit, Yarncount

Introduction

The knitwear (hosiery) industry is playing a vital role invalue addition of Textile sector. In the export field, the hosiery knitwearindustry of Pakistan has managed to make a big name in many countries of theworld. The world produces over 17 million tons of knitted textiles and apparelrepresenting one third of the global textile market. Moreover, output isforecast to grow by 25% over the next ten years, reaching more than 21 milliontons. (Textile Intelligence, July 2003). According to an estimate of PakistanHosiery Manufacturers Association, current production of knitwear is at thelevel of 1.1 billion pieces. Out of this production, 60% comprises jersey,knitted fabric, T-shirts, sweat shirts, polo shirts, jogging suits, track suitsand children outer wear. (Ahmed, N. January 1970).

This study focused only on the export oriented industriesdealing in hosiery knitwear because Pakistan's knitwear industry is almostentirely export-oriented. However, domestic use of garments such as vests andunderwear are common in all urban groups. The organized sector exports almostall its products, with the local consumption standing at only around 15 percent. Often these are brought into the local market because they have eitherbeen rejected by quality controllers of the firm for which they weremanufactured, or because orders have been cancelled, or due to over-production.(Ali, N. July 2003). The present study focused upon the infrastructure ofPakistani knitted textile industry specifically in the hosiery section. It tookinto account the variety of fabrics according to fiber, yarn, count, knit aswell as machinery and technology and other such factors that directly orindirectly affect the production of hosiery fabrics/ garments.

The study also highlights the problems that knitted-textileindustry is facing vis--vis manufacturing process and the reasons behind theseproblems. The study will be helpful for the small businessmen andindustrialists who are interested in establishing their businesses in thissector. In order to become more flexible and make better quality products,producers are investing in machinery which offers benefits of the latesttechnological development; as a result automation has been used in the past toproduce large orders at low price. However, Pakistan still needs advancement inthe knitted (hosiery) sector in order to compete with the international market.

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About the Author

The authoris Lecturer of the Department of Clothing & Textiles.