Warp Knitting Will Grow As Synthetics Become The Preferred Fibre

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Warp Knitting Will Grow As Synthetics Become The Preferred Fibre

How is the knitting sector performing from A.T.E.'s point of view?

There are two kinds of knitting, namely warp knitting and weft knitting. Both the businesses are performing well from the Indian perspective. Warp knitting business for us has done very well and will continue to play an important role because the demand for synthetic products is slowly increasing. Due to the high stresses and strains of the yarn as it gets processed, synthetic yarn will be the mainstay as far as warp knitting is concerned. Also, there is a lot of investment happening in activewear or sportswear sector in addition to the normal apparel business and this will increase demand for warp knitting among others.

Then, there is circular knitting which is more versatile. It is used to process cotton, blends, synthetics and others. So, from that perspective, it is more flexible and easier to set up. Also, the investment needed is lesser vis-à-vis warp knitting.

Those from the decentralised or unorganised sector can easily set up a circular knitting unit with minimum four machines. As I see it, the annual market size in India for circular knitting machines is around 1,000 to 1,500 machines across various diameters. Out of this number, around 80% of the machines are of Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean origin, while the rest are imported from Europe. There is a steady growth in the circular knitting market though not exponential, which will stay for time to come.

Circular knitting machines are coming to Gujarat, besides traditional knitting centres like Tirupur and Ludhiana. So what are the factors driving this trend?

There is not much growth as such. I would prefer to call it as a topping up. The Kolkata market has slowed down very much. Three to four years ago, a lot of circular knitting machines were installed there, but now there is hardly any growth.

However, if you take Surat in Gujarat, the circular knitting business has just kickstarted and some good quantity of machines in cheaper varieties have made their way there. One could see knitting projects coming in batches of 10, 20or in some cases, also 50 nos. Value addition is core to this market and hence one could also see jacquard machines coming in the future. Many existing warp knitting customers are also seriously looking at expanding into circular knitting, which is a leading indicator of growth for circular knitting in Surat area.The knitting of synthetic dress materials is the main factor driving the demand for circular knitting machines in a place like Surat, since it is primarily a synthetic driven market. The Tirupur market is more cotton export driven, while Ludhiana predominantly remains into domestic markets. Tirupur has mostly a job knitting community,which works with lesser number of machines per installation.

What are the products in your portfolio for the Indian market?

We are present across the entire textile value chain from the machinery point of view namely, spinning, knitting, weaving, processing, non-wovens, synthetics, carpets, technical textiles and garmenting. Then we are also prominently into accessories for spinning and processing. In the textile machine marketing, we are one of the most diversified companies. We can give end to end quality solutions to any customer or project. Hence, the customer does not have to go to different suppliers for their varied machinery requirements.Out of the above, I handle knitting, nonwovens, synthetics and carpets businesses.

What is the kind of market share that A.T.E. has in the knitting business?

In circular knitting, our market share is lower at the moment. In warp knitting however, we have a very dominant presence across markets, be it apparels or technical textiles. Though the Chinese have been selling some machines here, it would be very difficult for them to come up to the speeds and efficiencies of Karl Mayer machines.

There has been a lot of talk about technical textiles by the government and the industry. Have we been able to walk that talk so far?

The market demand for technical textileswill keep growing steadily as the knowledge and awareness grows. The use of technical textiles can also be linked to the country's GDP growth. People should see value in purchasing and using technical textiles. Currently, the market size is around Rs. 92,000 crores and expected to touch around Rs. 1,20,000 crores by next year.

There is a lot of scope for fire retardant (FR) fabrics, geotextiles and coated fabrics of different kinds. Then we have bag filters, wipes, spun bonded and SMS fabrics in nonwovens and so on. Hygiene is another market growing steadily in India.

However, in order for these to grow faster, it is important for the government to go beyond the announcement of the policies and ensure their effective implementation e.g., enforcement of the use of geotextiles in infrastructure like roads and railways, which come under the purview of the government to be also included in the Shedule of Rates (SOR). A mandatory use of this technical textile would automatically open up a relatively sleeping geotextile market to the tune of about Rs. 60,000 crore in size.

So technical textile sector will definitely take a good share of the overall textile industry in the next five years to come.