Indian technical textiles market is expected to grow at rate of 11% per

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.

While stressing for an urgent need to exploit this potential, and Thiru Maran said that my Ministry has set up four Centres of Excellence (CoE) for Agrotech at Mumbai; Geotech at Ahmedabad; Meditech at Coimbatore; and Protech at Ghaziabad; provided coverage of technical textiles under Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS); dereserved sanitary napkins/body diapers from the ambit of small scale sector and extended fiscal support. Thiru Maran also announced that National Textiles Corporation will conduct feasibility studies in Technical Textiles for starting its unit in Coimbatore.

Thiru Maran also emphasized the urgent need to create indigenous manufacturing facilities and increase domestic consumption of technical textiles and this will largely depend on the institutional users in infrastructure, healthcare, transportation, construction, irrigation, defence, etc. We are aware of the bottlenecks like lack of demand, skilled manpower, competitiveness, testing infrastructure and testing support, affecting the growth of market of technical textiles, said Thiru Maran. To devise measures to overcome these constraints and to apprise various stakeholders, especially the institutional users, about the application, investment potential and benefits of technical textiles, the Ministry of Textiles, in partnership with FICCI, is organizing four workshops in the next month viz Meditech on September 01, 2009, Protech on September 15, 2009, Agrotech on September 18, 2009, and Geotech on September 23, 2009, at Hotel Shangri-La's, New Delhi, said Thiru Maran.

Overview

� Meditech covers technical textiles used in hygiene and medical facilities like surgical dressing, bandages, surgical gowns, artificial implants, etc.

� Protech covers technical textiles catering to personnel and protection like fire retardant textiles, bullet-proof jackets, high altitude clothing, etc.

� Agrotech includes technical textiles used in agriculture, horticulture (include floriculture), fisheries and forestry like shade-nets, crop-covers, anti-hail nets, bird protection nets, etc.

� Geotech (also commonly called Geotextiles) covers textile items used in geotechnical applications pertaining to soil, rock, earth, etc. These are used in roads, rail-tracks, slopes etc. for separation, filtration, drainage, etc.

� Packtech covers technical textiles products used for protective coverings like sacks, twine, (FIBC), tea/coffee bags, etc.

� Clothtech covers technical textiles used in garments, shoes, bags like interlinings, wadding and fibre-fills, shoe laces, components of bags, etc.

� Hometech covers technical textiles used in household activities like wipes, floor mops, furniture components, mattress components, upholstery and interior furnishing, stuffed toys, etc.

� Soprttech covers technical textiles used in sports industry to manufacture sports equipments, outfits like sport bags, artificial turf, sport nets, sail cloth, etc.

� Mobiltech covers technical textiles used in automobiles, aircrafts, shipbuilding like nylon tyre cord fabrics, seat covers, seat belts, cabin filters, tufted carpet, upholstery, etc.

� Buildtech covers technical textiles used in construction of buildings, house structures, dams, tunnels, etc., like reinforcement of walls, facades, hose wrap, concrete wraps, waterproof membranes, thermal and sound insulation, sever and pipe linings, etc.

� Indutech covers technical textiles used in industrial processes like filtration, clearing, seals like woven filters, air filters, dust filters, conveyor fabrics, industrial belts & hose, abrasive products, etc.

� Oekotech covers technical textiles used for environmental protection like environment control, municipal solid waste management, industrial hazardous waste management, etc.