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TEA, Textile Industry Associations and CODISSIA Come Together To Strengthen Indigenous Manufacturing Of Textile Machinery & Accessories

• By  Mohan Prabhu
• April 30, 2024

As per the advice of Honorary Chairman of Tiruppur Exporters' Association Padmashri Dr A. Sakthivel and to address the problems caused by use of imported machinery for various stages of apparel production such as knitting, dyeing, processing, finishing, embroidery, printing, sewing and post- production, a new initiative was undertaken by the President of Tiruppur Exporters' Association K.M. Subramanian. A meeting of all stakeholders including all trade associations of Tiruppur, leading educational institutions in Coimbatore and The Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) was convened by the Machinery/Spare Parts Manufacturing Initiative Sub Committee of TEA with the purpose of taking initiative to innovate and manufacture machinery and spare parts.

K.M. Subramanian mentioned that Tirupur was a city that earned foreign exchange worth Rs 34,350 crore and had a domestic trade of Rs 30,000 crore, employing over 10 lakh people. He also mentioned that Coimbatore was the city chosen by Government of India to manufacture the equipment required for the Defence sector and Chandrayaan-3 space mission in view of the precision and capability achieved by engineering companies based in Coimbatore.

He said that the Tiruppur manufacturers face several problems in view of the compulsion to import almost all machinery and spare parts required for knitting, dyeing, processing, finishing, embroidery, printing, sewing and post- production activities of the knitwear industry. The problems included the rising cost of machinery, high investment, increase in the currency exchange values and delay in arrival of spare parts resulting in downtime of the machines. He said that the purpose of the meeting was to commence the first step by focusing on local production of important spare parts of various machines and gradually shift to production of such machinery indigenously.

The Joint Secretary of TEA, Kumar Duraiswamy said that if the Tirupur Industry had to move to the next level, focus should be on steps to manufacture and replace the import of important machinery used in the various stages of knitwear apparel production. He expressed happiness that CODISSIA has offered full cooperation for this initiative. According to him, given the growing importance of Tiruppur which accounts for about 54% of India's knitwear exports and Rs 30,000 crore of domestic trade such timely initiative would bear great results.

On behalf of all textile industry associations in Tirupur, Ahil S Rathinasamy, President of Knit Cloth Manufacturers Association, praised the initiative of the Tiruppur Exporters' Association as an effort to move the industry forward, and said that although the industry, which started in the 1960s, has grown from domestic trade to export, we are still looking at purchasing machines and spare parts from other countries since they are not manufactured locally though we have the capability and technical know-how for the same.

Former President of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) A. V. Varadarajan said that everyone should work together to solve this problem by using the world-class technology that we have, and it is necessary to prepare a list of machines and spare parts of all departments including knitting and dyeing for manufacture locally. And that CODISSIA would fully support this move.

Speaking on behalf of the educational institutes, Dr. A. Kandaswamy, Head of Industrial Research and Development, PSG College of Technology, said that they would cooperate in all possible ways with this initiative of TEA. Prof. Dr. R. Sureshkumar, Head of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Eshwar College of Technology, while speaking, said that through the Tirupur Exporters Association, it would be helpful to provide opportunities to study the problems faced by the industrial sector and channelled through the technical colleges across Tamil Nadu and provide solutions to them.

Tiruppur manufacturers face several problems in view of the compulsion to import almost all machinery and spare parts required for knitting, dyeing, processing, finishing, embroidery, printing, sewing and post- production activities of the knitwear industry. The problems included the rising cost of machinery, high investment, increase in the currency exchange values and delay in arrival of spare parts resulting in downtime of the machines.