Coimbatore: "The Textile Engineering industry has huge potential to grow and domestic manufacturers need to upgrade and focus on Research and Development mode to fulfill the demand and replace the import," said Jugal Kishore, President, Indian Textile Accessories and Machinery Manufacturers' Association.
Coimbatore: "The Textile Engineering industry has huge potential to grow and domestic manufacturers need to upgrade and focus on Research and Development mode to fulfill the demand and replace the import," said Jugal Kishore, President, Indian Textile Accessories and Machinery Manufacturers' Association.
Speaking at the inauguration of 'Farm to Finish Expo 2019 and Texfair 2019' organized by the Southern India Mills Association at CODISSIA, Jugal Kishore said that the import of textile machines and accessories has grown by 23 percent in 2019-20 compared to that of the previous year. The import of textile stool at 11065 million in 2018-19 and the highest value of import is happening with digital printing machines, which alone accounted for 37 percent of total import, amounting to 430 million.
He attributed the growth of digital printing machines to its fast and versatile use, besides not having water effluent which has made it the "need of the hour" thing. Weaving machines at 135 million and spinning at 96 million is eight percent of the total import, but a rise of 42 per cent when compared to last years. "This shows that domestic manufacturers of domestic machines have a good chance to rise up and meet the demand of the domestic textile industry by fulfilling the share and reducing the import,” added Jugal Kishore.
He further opined that today's Indian textile engineering industry is operating at about 70 percent and serving 65 percent of the industry demand. "In order to fulfill the demand and replace the imports, all the domestic manufacturers need to upgrade and focus on R&D mode," he added.
Dr. K V Srinivasan, Chairman, TEXPROCIL and SITRA, Coimbatore, in his inaugural address stated that the textile industry was now going through a severe crisis due to raw material cost, availability, cost of labor, power and poor demand in local and export markets. "Though over the past 10 years, the exports of cotton textile from the country has shown annual growth of eight percent. Yarn export has grown by 100 percent, fabric export by 90 percent and made ups by 70 percent in the past 10 years. However, the exports, especially in cotton yarn dropped considerably in 2019. Apart from poor international demand, the reason for this drop is due to the tariff concession given to the competing countries into the main markets like Europe and the United States. China, which is the main export market for cotton yarn gave duty-free access to the import of cotton yarn to Pakistan, while Vietnam and Indonesia already enjoy the benefits.
The Chinese customer thus prefers to import duty-free yarn from them in comparison to Indian yarn, which carries 3.5 import duty. Similarly, in the European market, the Indian yarn has a duty of 4 percent and the fabric has 8 percent, while Pakistan and others have not duty at all.
When the market is bad, the tariff difference of 4 per cent will play significant role in determining the cost of competitiveness,” said Dr. K V Srinivasan. Citing that the industry brings foreign revenue and is the biggest employer, Srinivasan said that it is important to sustain the competitiveness of the industry and for which the Central and State governments should extend support to the industry.
He suggested that the Government of India's ROSCTL scheme which is WTO compatible, should be extended to all the sectors of the textile industry. "Currently, this is now given to only garment and made up sectors. The Government should extend this to yarn and fabric sectors as well. The Indian Government in the past has given interest for pension and it is time to extend it to all the sectors of the textile industry to ensure that the interest should be competitive with other countries," he added.
Dr. K V Srinivasan expressed that the Tamil Nadu Government should come out with a proactive scheme to sustain the competitiveness of textile manufacturing in the State. "They should establish a training institute to train labor which is a major issue. There should be a sufficient skill force at the floor and supervisory level of the industry," he noted. He also highlighted the need for the State Government to support wind energy to determine the competitiveness of the textile industry in the State.
Earlier, P Nataraj, Chairman, SIMA stated that Texfair 2019 had attracted 250 exhibitors from Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, China and Republic Slovakia who will exhibit their products in 320 stalls. "The four-day Expo, starting from today is expected to attract 1 lakh visitors," he added.
Ajay D Shah, President, Textile Machinery and Mill Stores Merchants Association and Ashwin Chandran, Vice Chairman, SIMA also spoke at the event.
Speaking at the inauguration of 'Farm to Finish Expo 2019 and Texfair 2019' organized by the Southern India Mills Association at CODISSIA, Jugal Kishore said that the import of textile machines and accessories has grown by 23 percent in 2019-20 compared to that of the previous year. The import of textile stool at 11065 million in 2018-19 and the highest value of import is happening with digital printing machines, which alone accounted for 37 percent of total import, amounting to 430 million.
He attributed the growth of digital printing machines to its fast and versatile use, besides not having water effluent which has made it the "need of the hour" thing. Weaving machines at 135 million and spinning at 96 million is eight percent of the total import, but a rise of 42 per cent when compared to last years. "This shows that domestic manufacturers of domestic machines have a good chance to rise up and meet the demand of the domestic textile industry by fulfilling the share and reducing the import,” added Jugal Kishore.
He further opined that today's Indian textile engineering industry is operating at about 70 percent and serving 65 percent of the industry demand. "In order to fulfill the demand and replace the imports, all the domestic manufacturers need to upgrade and focus on R&D mode," he added.
Dr. K V Srinivasan, Chairman, TEXPROCIL and SITRA, Coimbatore, in his inaugural address stated that the textile industry was now going through a severe crisis due to raw material cost, availability, cost of labor, power and poor demand in local and export markets. "Though over the past 10 years, the exports of cotton textile from the country has shown annual growth of eight percent. Yarn export has grown by 100 percent, fabric export by 90 percent and made ups by 70 percent in the past 10 years. However, the exports, especially in cotton yarn dropped considerably in 2019. Apart from poor international demand, the reason for this drop is due to the tariff concession given to the competing countries into the main markets like Europe and the United States. China, which is the main export market for cotton yarn gave duty-free access to the import of cotton yarn to Pakistan, while Vietnam and Indonesia already enjoy the benefits.
The Chinese customer thus prefers to import duty-free yarn from them in comparison to Indian yarn, which carries 3.5 import duty. Similarly, in the European market, the Indian yarn has a duty of 4 percent and the fabric has 8 percent, while Pakistan and others have not duty at all.
When the market is bad, the tariff difference of 4 per cent will play significant role in determining the cost of competitiveness,” said Dr. K V Srinivasan. Citing that the industry brings foreign revenue and is the biggest employer, Srinivasan said that it is important to sustain the competitiveness of the industry and for which the Central and State governments should extend support to the industry.
He suggested that the Government of India's ROSCTL scheme which is WTO compatible, should be extended to all the sectors of the textile industry. "Currently, this is now given to only garment and made up sectors. The Government should extend this to yarn and fabric sectors as well. The Indian Government in the past has given interest for pension and it is time to extend it to all the sectors of the textile industry to ensure that the interest should be competitive with other countries," he added.
Dr. K V Srinivasan expressed that the Tamil Nadu Government should come out with a proactive scheme to sustain the competitiveness of textile manufacturing in the State. "They should establish a training institute to train labor which is a major issue. There should be a sufficient skill force at the floor and supervisory level of the industry," he noted. He also highlighted the need for the State Government to support wind energy to determine the competitiveness of the textile industry in the State.
Earlier, P Nataraj, Chairman, SIMA stated that Texfair 2019 had attracted 250 exhibitors from Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, China and Republic Slovakia who will exhibit their products in 320 stalls. "The four-day Expo, starting from today is expected to attract 1 lakh visitors," he added.
Ajay D Shah, President, Textile Machinery and Mill Stores Merchants Association and Ashwin Chandran, Vice Chairman, SIMA also spoke at the event.