The technical textile industry in India has the potential to grow at a rate of 15-20 per cent annually to touch $30 billion over the next five years. Despite the huge potential, the investment in technical textiles sector has not gained much momentum in the past, according to a top official of the textile machinery division of Voltas Limited.
“There have been sporadic investments to manufacture in artificial leather, hygiene textiles, medical textiles and geotextiles, etc. However, India may need to accelerate investments quickly to encash the opportunities, as otherwise it would be taken over by other competing countries,” said C Kamatchisundaram, vp-textile machinery division, Voltas, in an interview to Fibre2Fashion.
Voltas’s textile machinery division is a leading technology provider in India with a product suite including capital equipment, machinery, accessories, allied machinery and services for spinning, knitting, weaving, processing and finishing sectors. The company offers latest technology machines from globally reputed machine manufacturers like LMW, Terrot, Brueckner, Thies, Reggiani, Benninger, Shima Seiki, etc, in each part of the textile value chain. In the spinning machinery market, its principal-LMW holds a market share of more than 55 per cent and is used to make yarn meant for technical textiles, which include yarns made from specialty fibres like Kevlar, Nomex, etc.
The company has a footprint across India through its branches located in 16 locations, which are strategically positioned close to the textile clusters. It is an India-focused organisation and has its customer base mainly in India. The major clients of Voltas include Vardhaman, Trident, Nahar, Garg, Winsome, DCM in the north; Arvind, Welspun, RSWM, Sangam, Sintex, Shri Vallabh Pittie, Technocraft, Morarji in the west and Premier, Precot, GTN, Surya Group, Shanmugavel Group, GHCL, Thiagarajar group, Mohan Spintex in the south. The company has also partnered with machinery manufacturers in India and across the globe to bring technology solutions and services to the Indian textiles industry.
Voltas has partnered with Shandong RIfa, the largest manufacturer of airjet and rapier machines in the world, and has already created an installed base of more than 1,500 machines in the country at various clusters. The weaving machine manufactured by Shandong Rifa enables customers to produce almost at the level of European machines but with much less cost in investment.

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