Need for growth of nonwoven textile industry stressed

Mumbai, Jan 4 (UNI) Association of the Nonwoven Fabric Industry has emphasised on the growth of the nonwoven textile industry of the country which boasts of being the world's leading polyester staple fibre producer and which is strong in all fronts of conventional sectors from fibre to fabric.

Inaugurating a two-day workshop on nonwoven textile here today, the association's India Committee co-chairman, Dr Seshadri Ram Kumar who teaches at Texas Tech University, said that although the Indian textile industry was strong in all fronts of conventional sectors from fibre to fabric, still it lagged behind China in the field of its manufacture.

In the current year, the country's cotton output is expected to reach 270 lakh bales, which will position the country in the second place in global cotton output ahead of the USA.

Currently, India produces only 35,000 tonnes per annum whereas China's output per annum was over 7.5 lakh metric tonnes. He said the non-traditional textile industry is a growing one with an average annual growth of 7-8 per cent even in industrialised nations like the USA. According to an estimate, the nonwoven industry will be worth over 22 billion USD in 2009.

The association, which represents 300 leading global companies like Proctor&Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Johns Manville and others, is holding a two-day ''Nonwoven training course'' in collaboration with FICCI and Union Ministry of Textiles, which began here today. It will be holding the first International Nonwovens Conference here in October, he added.

UNI