In The Coming Years, Truetzschler Will Manufacture More Machines In India For The Global Market

Rendezvous

In The Coming Years, Truetzschler Will Manufacture More Machines In India For The Global Market

During the launch of the Make In India campaign, PM Narendra Modi said, "The world is looking at Asia. I do not have to waste time to invite people. I need to give them the address."

This seems to have happened, as textile machinery majors from across the globe are setting up new facilities and expanding existing ones, in India. Truetzschler's Indian manufacturing hub is today its largest in the world, which manufactures state-of-the-art textile machines for the world market. In an exclusive interview with Reena Mital, Thomson Joseph, Director, and Ashish Sharma, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Truetzschler India Pvt Ltd discuss the company's manufacturing plans for India.

Fluctuations on the raw material front have impacted the performance of the Indian textile industry. How do you find the Indian market for your products?

The current raw material scenario has impacted the industry, but then textiles has always been a cyclic business. That apart, there are a lot of positives that are behind our optimism in this market. China has slowed down dramatically as far as investments in its spinning sector are concerned, and the Indian spinning industry is well positioned to grab the opportunities which are available globally. Apart from the new investments happening in India's spinning industry, the spinning industry in southern India is moving towards modernisation and technology upgradation. The industry in this region was reeling under a power crisis, but now the situation is better and investments have started to flow.

Can you elaborate on the latest products that you have launched, and how was the market response?

In the last two years, we have launched a number of new high tech products. The highlight is Toyota-Truetzschler TCO 12 combers and TSL 12 lap formers, which significantly extend our product line for spinning preparation. Latest generation Integrated Draw Frame ( IDF 2) concept is also getting a very positive response from our customers in open end application.

Indian spinning sector has been the largest user of the TUFS. In this background, what is the level of technology here, and what is the scope for improvement?

Today manpower availability and rising costs has created a huge demand for automation and spinning mills are opting for automated machines. The Indian spinning industry wants the best and latest products which are also equally price competitive. A trimmed down version will not do well in this highly quality oriented market. Truetzschler always offers the most modern, most high tech products to the Indian market. Tell us about the Truetzschler manufacturing experience in India. India is the biggest manufacturing facility in the Truetzschler group today, with the whole range of spinning preparatory machines and card clothing under one roof. We have been in India for the last 30 years and with continuous investment flowing into our manufacturing set up, we have today state-of-the-art plant which caters not only to the Indian market but even globally.

This year, we will begin producing nonwoven components and going forward some nonwoven machines too will be made in India. We expect good growth of the nonwovens industry and Truetzschler with its entire product range of machines for this segment is well geared up to serve this industry. We follow lean manufacturing concepts and with full range of machines being offered from Truetzschler India, we are highly efficient and flexible to handle shorter lead time as per the market demands.

Techtex and nonwovens in India have been slow to grow. Why do you believe that the industry is now set to take off?

For many products, the domestic market was restricted due to low levels of disposable incomes. With improvement in this scenario, we will see that consumption in the market will also grow. Moreover, infrastructure did not grow at a very strong pace in the last 10 years, but now this is also moving ahead. As modern methods of construction are adopted, geotextiles will find wide usage.

Going forward, what are the emerging market trends?

From machinery execution point of view in the Truetzschler Group, lot of interesting changes have happened in the last couple of years. U.S. spinning investment picked up due to cheaper power cost and availability of cotton. Turkey still remains a consistent market. China has slowed down but at the same time India has emerged with strong growth figures. As the statistics say, by 2025, we expect the Indian textile industry to double in size. Apart from India and China countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia are among Truetzschler's strong markets today.