Interview with Naresh Saneja

Naresh Saneja
Senior VP – Works
PT Sunrise Bumi Textiles

VSF yarn industry facing environmental issues

Incorporated in 1979, PT Sunrise Bumi Textiles is one the world's leading quality yarn manufacturers. Starting with an initial capacity of 17,280 spindles, the Indonesia-based company has shown phenomenal growth scaling up to 86,688 spindles. Senior vice-president (works), Naresh Saneja, converses about the challenges that the VSF yarn industry is facing.

What is the global market size for VSF yarns? How big is the industry?

The global trade of rayon and rayon-blended yarn is around 587,000 metres per year as per my knowledge, and our share of rayon and blends is 13 per cent in Aditya Birla group units (Aditya Birla Yarns )

Which industries make use of VSF? What are the latest applications?

VSF is mainly used for knit apparels, woven fabrics, upholstery end-uses. The latest applications are mattress ticking and some medical applications. Some coarse counts are also used in technical textiles.

To which markets do you supply your yarn?

We export globally, and our share is 35 per cent in the domestic and 65 per cent in export markets.

Which yarn blends are popular in the export markets?

Poly/rayon 65/35 and 50/50 are the most common blends, and also rayon/cotton 50/50 for the denim industry.

What are the latest innovations taking place in this industry?

The latest innovations in case of rayon yarns are open-end and vortex yarn for high-end markets in comparison to the traditional ring-spun yarns.

What are the challenges facing the VSF yarn industry?

Growth for the VSF yarn industry is difficult, especially in China, due to environmental issues.

What are the challenges that this niche faces at the global level?

Over-supply of yarns and prices of raw material and yarns are always fluctuating.

What is your USP in comparison to the other big players?

We always try for high-end applications and we have all three kind of technologies like ring-spun , open-end as well as vortex. In addition to poly/viscose blends we also produce rayon/cotton blends. Since Birla is a rayon fibre producer, we can get fibres developed as per our requirements.

How has your company performed in the last two fiscals? What factors affect performance?

Selling commodity products is a challenge because costs are increasing. Raw material price fluctuations are high. We are trying to develop new VAPS (value added products) to improve profitability.

What are your latest research findings?

Improve productivity in case of commodity products to optimise cost of production and develop new value-added products to improve the bottom line. We want to work more closely with customers.

The Indian yarn industry falls behind when it comes to research and innovation. Your comments?

The mindset of just reducing costs instead of improving quality and innovating needs to change, making way for new thinking with more focus on quality. This mindset is changing as there is no other option.

What kind of innovations in machinery do yarn makers like you look for?

Machinery makers are working for higher productivity/automation to reduce costs besides trying to upgrade existing machines as well as new machines to give more value addition to the final product.

What are the plans at Sunrise Bumi?

Sunrise Bumi Textile is located near Jakarta, where the costs are very high. There is also a limit to expansion because we do not have land. This plant is more than 40 years old. To make it viable, we are trying to upgrade/replace our machines and trying to develop more value-added products. For 102,648 spindles, we have a variety of value-added products equivalent to 50 per cent of the total production. We want to go up to 60 per cent by end of this year, and our plan is to convert our maximum production to the value-added range. (HO)

Published on: 05/05/2018

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.