Auto textiles industry told to step up output

With the country set to become a global outsourcing hub for automobiles, industry experts have urged the domestic automotive textiles sector to brace up and grab the opportunity.

They have cautioned that the country would have to resort to imports if the the domestic automotive textile industry did not keep pace with the auto industry's growth.

The country produced 1.3 million units of cars in 2006-07, which is expected to scale up to over 3 million units by 2015. Given the fact that each car, on an average, consumes 15 to 25 kg of textiles, the automotive textiles segment is expected to have a market size of Rs 3,245 crore by the end of the current five-year plan (2011-12) from the current Rs 1,614 crore.

Automobile textiles or mobiltech are the textile components used in automobiles as fibres, filaments, yarns and fabrics. Mobiltech, a segment of technical textiles, forms only 6.25 per cent of the entire technical textiles segment in the country, whereas, globally it amounts to 25 per cent of the entire consumption of technical textiles. 
 

KEEPING PACE Automotive textiles industry
Year	Market size (Rs cr)
2002-03	1,271
2003-04	1,382
2006-07	1,614
2009-10	2,454
2011-12	3,245

"Mobiltech is the most important segment of the technical textile industry. The country has a high potential for growth in this sector," said Shashi Singh, joint textile commissioner, ministry of textiles.

At present, the country has less than a dozen manufacturers of automotive textiles.

However, none of them is a major manufacturer. SRF, Abhishek Auto Industries, IFW Autolive and Supreme Nonwovens are some of the lweading companies in the segment. Industry sources said more manufacturing facilities should be set up to cater to the spiralling demand.

The products that make up automotive textiles include webbings, airbags, nylon tyre cord, seat covers, headliners, helmets, safety belts and interior carpets.

Te nylon cord segment leads with a 65 per cent market share (Rs 1,051 crore) of the domestic automotive textiles industry followed by helmets (Rs 273 crore) and seat covers (Rs 125 crore).

"The textile sector has to gear up to meet the demand for the auto sector, which is poised for a healthy growth. We do not want to go for imports," added Singh.

Industry analysts said market players could diversify into automobile textiles as there were very few existing players and the venture would only prove profitable.

They added that exports of cars would create more opportunities only to boost the mobiltech sector.

According to A Subramanian, a textile consultant based in Coimbatore, textile firms should go in for more research and development (R&D) for mobiltech as the country has a lot of raw materials.

Subscribing to this view, V K Kothari, professor in textile technology at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, said that country needed more manufacturing facilities to cope up with the upcoming challenge of meeting the auto sector's demand.

The country had a share of 1.32 per cent of the world's consumption of automotive textiles at $27.22 billion in 2006. It is expected that the share will jump to 2.32 per cent by 2010.