NEW DELHI: Textile and clothing companies are venturing into technical textiles, as profit margins in traditional textiles and apparels are under pressure due to enhanced competition from multinational brands, Business Coordination House, Managing Director Samir Gupta said here on April 12.
A $ 4 billion technical textiles segment is in an emerging stage in the country. Further technical textiles are innovative and are often developed according to the needs of the end user as conductive and 3D textiles have been developed which find increasing use in mechanical engineering.
Technical textiles also covers surgical gown clothes, bandages, plasters and filters in healthcare industry and fishing nets, woven and non-woven covers for crops in agriculture.
The MD also said that it is the right time for domestic players to invest in the technical textile segment as their is huge potential with penetration level as low as 1 per cent compared to 98 per cent in developed countries
The domestic industry is set to expand by 100 per cent from the current $ 4 billion to $ 8 billion by 2007-08.
Further officials from textile ministry said that the sector has the potential to grow like home textiles segment and policies for attracting 100 per cent FDI are already in place as the segment is also eligible for concessions under Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme and a capital subsidy of 5 per cent for non small scale industries and 15 per cent for SSIs.
The Confederation of Indian Industries Secretary General D. K. Nair stated that technical textiles are the only textile product where the consumer is not always the market but another sector.
Considering the demand for technical textiles in US and EU has increased manifolds, the country may be benefited from the demand supply gap.
