Domestic consumption of technical textiles to be increased

12 Aug '09

4 min read

The domestic market size of technical textiles in the country is expected to grow at the rate of 11% per annum and will reach Rs. 66,414 crore by 2012, which is about Rs. 37,115 crore at the moment, Thiru. Maran, textiles Minister, said this at the curtain raiser function of 'Technotex-2009'here today.

He said that the global market size of the technical textiles industry which was US $ 107 billion in 2005 is also expected to increase to US $ 127 billion by next year..On the occasion, Thiru. Maran also launched the website 'www. technotex.gov.in' to cater the information need of the technical textiles in the country.

The segment has a potential to attract investment and create additional employment opportunities in coming years, said Thiru Maran. 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 Textiles Minister.

The 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 like aerospace, agriculture, sports, defence, construction and medical. Based on their end use applications technical textiles are grouped into twelve segments, viz. 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 cost effective in the long run. The life cycle cost of technical textiles is lower than the traditional materials and textiles, said Thiru. Maran.

The Textiles Minister also informed that India is the second largest textiles economy in the world after China, however, its contribution to the global technical textiles market is insignificant. The technical textiles industry has immense potential in the developing countries, particularly in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and India.The changing economic scenario in these countries will boost the demand for technical textiles, said the Minister. Considering our highly skilled and scientific/technical manpower and abundant availability of raw material, we can emerge as a key player in the technical textiles industry, said Thiru. Maran.

The percentage of indigenous production varies drastically across various products, we are the largest producer of Packtech, Clothtech, Hometech and Soprttech 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, crop covers, said Thiru. Maran.

Unlike conventional textiles, which is highly export intensive, the technical textiles are import intensive.We annually import technical textiles worth Rs. 4,000 crore mainly from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Italy said Thiru. Maran Many products like baby and adult diapers, polypropylene spunbond fabric for disposals, 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), viz., like Johnson & Johnson, Du Pont, Procter & Gamble, 3M, SKAPs, Kimberly Clark have set up manufacturing facilities in India, said Thiru Maran.

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