Eyeing almost 10 per cent annual growth in the country, the man-made fibre textiles industry is set to add another 1.5 million tonnes to its polyester fibre capacity by March 2013. Gathering at the first ever International Conference on Man-made Fibre Textiles, the industry is looking to squeeze the gap between cotton and man-made fibre consumption in India.
The conference was organised by Fibre2Fashion, a global B2B website for textile industry in association with the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) and Surat Art Silk Cloth Manufacturers Association (SASCMA). "India has the advantage of being self-sufficient in polyester over China. In 1980, India had 80:20 ratio of cotton and polyester, respectively. In 2011, it is 60:40. We are expecting a nine per cent growth per annum in polyester in the country. While polyester fibre capacity in India is 4.5 million tonnes per annum currently, it is expected to grow by another 1.5 million tonnes by March 2013," said R D Udeshi, president, polyester chain, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).
On its part, RIL is looking at high tenacity yarn for industry use and fire retardant fibre, among other things. "Around Rs 150 crore has been invested in R&D of technical textiles by RIL. We are also expanding our polyester chain from seven million tonnes to 15 million tonnes by 2015 at an investment of $3.5 billion. So while the polyester chain currently yields $10 billion for Reliance, by 2015 it will yield $20-21 billion," Udeshi added. Similarly, according KK Maheshwari, business director, pulp and fibre division, Aditya Birla Group, while viscose capacity currently in India is 300,000 tonnes, it will be 435,000 tonnes by March 2013. "Grasim Industries is adding in all 155,000 tonnes of cellulose fibre by 2013," said Maheshwari.
Held at IIM-A, the conference looked to deliberate on what role man-made fibre could play in the near future. "Land to cultivate cotton is going to fall, with the same land competing with other remunerative food crops. Secondly water consumption across the whole cotton textile value chain is also very high. This puts a question mark on long term viability and prospects of the production of the natural fibre. Man-made fibres will also be in very good demand from the burgeoning technical textiles sector. Two fibres in particular will dominate the global textile sector, namely polyester and viscose staple fibre," said PR Roy, director of Fibre2Fashion.
The conference debated over how global per capita consumption of textile fibres is 11.5 kg as against a mere 4-5 kg only in India.
"By 2030, fibre usage is expected to be near 140 million tonnes. Since cotton competes with food crops for the same arable land, there are very few indicators of rise in global cotton output in the future. Considering that cotton value chain consumes a huge amount of water, getting water in the future could prove to be a strain. The gap between demand and supply for fibres can be filled up only by man-made textile fibres," said Robin Anson, managing director, Textiles Intelligence, UK.
Meanwhile, conventional and organic cotton uses 11,700 litres and 14,300 litres of water, as against cellulose viscose's need of only 445 litres," Anson added.
