The Hindu Business Line : Knitwear value-chain taking to `slub' yarn

If you want to value-add your textiles and clothing production, do not stop with applying new fabric patterns or innovative garment designs... or with just new colour forecasting or product marketing formats.

Look back along the production value chain. You might discover value addition scope opening up at the yarn stage itself, thereby relieving you of the monotony of being a dealer of plain vanilla (commodity) yarns.

One such value addition in cotton yarn production that has begun to sway the yarn market of late is the rediscovery of `slub' yarn or the `effect' yarn, as it is technically called in the trade.

The use of `effect' yarn as fancy yarn is gaining ground among textile producers making value-added knitwear, home textiles or high-end shirting materials, according to Mr T.A.S. Dhanddabani, a yarn dealer from Tirupur, whose family firm, A Ganapathi Chettiar (yarn division), is involved in marketing specialty/fancy yarns for the past four decades.

Tirupur in spotlight

Tirupur has particularly emerged as the favoured source point for fashion-oriented knitwear products by global garment chains/retailers and is in the focus of fancy yarn producers as, according to Mr Walter Bowald, Vice-President, Amsler Tex AG, the Swiss technology company marketing the machinery attachment and its software package for slub yarn producers, the knitwear sector is billed as the emerging market for slub yarn consumption after denim fabrics makers.

"Since the denim sector globally is stagnating, we are trying to influence knits, home textiles and finer count shirtings which present a huge potential to use `slub' yarns and stand to get major market following in the coming days," Mr Bowald, who was in Tirupur in connection with a technical seminar on value addition from `effect' yarn, told Business Line. Amsler Tex is also working with global garment labels, including Tom Hilfiger, Boss and Crocodile, for promotion of slub yarns in knits.

The trend of slub yarns gaining market is already felt with the Ganapathi Chettiar yarn division recording a rise in the sale volume of this particular yarn variety in Tirupur market.

Defining the `effect'

The `effect' yarn is called so because the `effect' of a slub caused on the surface of yarn during the process of yarn spinning at pre-programmed intervals by itself becomes designed yarn, catching the fancy of leading garment labels all over the world. This engineered yarn pattern is produced using specific `slub' attachment in the regular ring spinning frames or open-end spinning machinery along with special software package.

Though the usage of `slub' yarn or this particular yarn format is itself not new, the vast improvement made in the fancy yarn production technology by the Swiss company in terms of standardised repeatable physical characteristics capable of withstanding the high precision processing in downstream production has imparted greater versatility to the yarn, enhancing its application in high valued garments/home textiles.

A top-end global `slub' yarn system producer, Amsler AG has installed over 4,000 slub yarn systems around the world.

The Rajapalayam-based Ramco group, one of the major producers of slub yarn using the Amsler technology, is producing about 400 kg of this specialty yarn per day and nearly 80 per cent of `Ramco Amsler' branded slub yarn is being consumed by the Tirupur market.

Amsler, which has supplied 10 slub yarn machinery systems to the Ramco group, is expected to deliver another four units next year as Ramco plans to raise specialty yarn production.

More Stories on : Strategy | Knitwear & Hosiery | Tamil Nadu

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