Indian technical textiles market is expected to grow at a rapid 7.6 per cent in the Asia Pacific region to reach $23.3 billion in 2027, up from $14 billion in 2020, supported by increasing awareness about the products, higher disposable incomes, changing consumer trends besides some sector-specific growth drivers.
Numerous factors such as developing end-user sectors, rising awareness, government initiatives, regulations, standardisations, technology upgradation among others are expected to drive considerable growth of domestic technical textiles in coming years, says a report by KPMG-FICCI.
The domestic technical textile market for synthetic polymer was valued at $7.1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 7.2 per cent, while technical textile market for wovens is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4 per cent to $15.7 billion by 2027, up from $9.5 billion in 2020.
Industrial segment
Technical textile market for MobilTech (automotive textiles) is expected to grow to $3.7 billion by 2027 from $2.4 billion in 2020. Similarly, the market for InduTech (industrial textiles) would grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent from $2 billion in 2020 to reach $3.3 billion by 2027.
Some of the key strengths of Indian technical textile industry include strong value chain, large domestic market, and availability of skilled people, government support and the ability to scale up in quick time (this was proved in medical textile segment during Covid-19 period when demand for PPEs boomed).
Several government initiatives are supporting the growth of the segment. National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM), from 2020-21 and 2023-24 at an outlay of ₹1,480 crore is expected to help Indian players compete with international players.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in textiles sector with focus on MMF segment and technical textiles, will augment scale/capacities in technical textiles sector.
Also, the proposal to set up seven mega investment textiles parks over the next three years to give domestic manufacturers a level-playing field in the international textiles market.
Import dependence
During 2014-15 to 2019-20, India’s exports grew at a 0.9 per cent CAGR, whereas imports increased at 4.3 per cent. Import substitution through favourable policies would help growth of these high-growth segments and ensure value retention within the economy and new skilled employment opportunities for Indian youth, it said.
The report highlights that the technical textiles industry infrastructure in India predominantly focuses on low-value commodity products such as bags and sacks under basic non-wovens. Other industrial countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan focus on high-value products (bullet proof, fire retardant products) and segments.