India biggest market for Chinese textile machinery

28 Feb '12

4 min read

“India is the largest overseas market for Chinese textile machinery and is also the biggest reason for Chinese producers looking forward to setting up shop in India”, a top official of a Chinese textile machinery association told fibre2fashion.

At a recent road show in Ahmedabad, to promote ITMA Asia + CITME 2012, fibre2fashion caught up with Mr Zhao Xiaogang – Director, China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA) and the Indian representative of the event – Mr Sooraj Dhawan.

CTMA which is the co-host of ITMA Asia + CITME 2012 will be held from June 12 to 16, 2012 in Shanghai and will have around 1,400 textile machinery exhibitors, up from 1,300 in 2010, with the number of visitors expected to cross the 100,000 mark.

“India sends the largest contingent of visitors among all countries to ITMA shows, which was clearly visible even at ITMA 2011 in Barcelona”, Mr Dhawan said.

Mr Zhao said, “The Chinese textile machinery producers are gung-ho on the Indian market and are looking for joint-venture partners in India to set up textile machinery manufacturing plants in India”.

“I would sincerely advise all Indian textile machinery exhibitors participating in the event to put up posters, preferably in the Chinese language indicating that they are open for tying up with Chinese machinery manufacturers”, Mr Dhawan added.

The organisers of ITMA Asia plan to have 12 road shows across India, which will also target small textile clusters like Bhilwara, Sholapur and Ichalkaranji. Till date, road shows have been held in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Ahmedabad and Surat.

Mr Dhawan revealed, “Next we will be doing Sholapur and Ichalkaranji and in the third phase it will be Bhilwara, Ludhiana and Amritsar. The main objective behind hosting ITMA in Asia is to make it cost-effective for visitors from the continent, mainly India”.

“The Indian exhibitors will be covering around 800 sq meters of exhibition space and there is a waiting list for atleast 500 sq meters more. Even considering visitors, we expect Indian visitors to cross the 4,000 mark”.

Informing about the theme of this year's edition, Mr Zhao said, “The focus this year is on mainly nonwovens and energy efficient machines”.

When quizzed about the reasons for India being the largest importer of Chinese textile machinery, Mr Zhao said, “Comparable quality, attractive pricing, low delivery periods and good global customer references”.

“In 2012, Oerlikon Textiles one of the biggest global textile machinery producers has relocated its global headquarters to China”, Mr Zhao said proudly, when asked about the current market status of the textile machinery industry in China.

“Global textile machinery manufacturers like Rieter, Staubli, Picanol and many others have set up production plants in China and export machinery to other overseas countries”, Mr Dhawan quipped.

When asked about his outlook for 2012, Mr Zhao replied by saying, “In today's time, it is very difficult to predict the future, considering the daily changing economic barometers. But one thing that is certain is that the future of the textile industry lies in just two countries – India and China”.

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