The need for good fabric and high quality products have made it imperative for Indian textile and garment manufacturers to invest in good quality machines. Moreover the new TUF scheme has further facilitated investments in quality shutteless looms in India. As Tapas Nandi, President and Country Head, ITEMA Weaving India points out “India has a lot of capacity in the powerloom sector. However, the industry must concentrate on technology up-gradation and invest in shutteless looms. Asia holds the might of weaving capacity as it can supply capacity to global market. Keeping this in mind, we have recently introduced new generation air-jet and rapier machines, the A9500 and R9500 in India.”
Nandi feels that the India market is dominated by decentralized sector. “In India from 2009-2011 most of the fabric came from decentralized sectors where operators are not paid well and are not trained. A lot of shuttleloom machines are old and so we can’t produce quality fabrics. The organised sector should consider investment in modern weaving machines to adapt to changes in the global market. However, we still buy secondhand machines, whereas in countries like China manufacturers always invest in new machines,” says Nandi.
Fibre consumption is increasing worldwide at 6 to 7 per cent while synthetic fabric is 60 per cent. Today, developing countries consume more synthetic fibre than developed countries it’s a 60:40 ratio between synthetic and cotton fibre. So developing countries can meet the demand for cotton in developed countries. China is still the number cotton consumer and India produces high quality cotton. In developed countries, use of synthetics is increasing. Hence, high investments in capacity building have become imperative.
Established in 2008, ITEMA Weaving (India) is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the ITEMA Group. It is a leading global weaving machine manufacturer, making steady progress in India. The company’s new generation air-jet and rapier machines, the A9500 and R9500, are making swift inroads with sales activity indicating ITEMA as the “game changer” in the Indian textile market. “Our biggest market is Turkey. Turkey has bought nearly 20,000 machines in the last nine years. Whereas China has 75 per cent capacity and Europe has five per cent. We want to grow our market share in India. We want to deliver reliable and efficient machines to customers. We also expand our activities in China and have major customers in US, Japan and India. In these countries, we have our own establishments,” says Nandi. The company also has specialized weaving machines for technical textiles.
