Extend TUF scheme during 2012-17 Plan period: LMW director

The benefits of the Textile Upgradation Fund Scheme should be extended during the 2012-17 Plan period to the spinning industry as part of steps to help the textile sector tide over the present crisis, according to R. Rajendran, Director (Finance) of the Coimbatore-based Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd.

He said the India International Textile Machinery Exhibition-India ITME 2012, which is being held from December 2 to 7 at Mumbai (in which LMW is showcasing its products), offers an exposure to the textile industry to zero in on modernisation and to plan new projects.

Speaking to Business Line , he said LMW played a dominant role in the textile sector accounting for about 34 million spindles out of the total spindleage of 48 million in the country.

Explaining the importance of the exhibition for LMW as a launch pad for new products, Rajendran said, generally, the textile machinery manufacturers showcased their innovative products in international exhibitions held in Europe. But as China and India were major markets for textile spinning machinery, the manufacturers displayed their products periodically in these two countries also. The thrust of the machinery manufacturers was on “innovation mainly on power saving, productivity, quality and automation”. The national and international exhibitions provided an opportunity to the spinners to upgrade their facilities by way of modernisation/expansion and also planning for new projects.

On how much the exhibition led to new orders for the company, he said usually there would be a time lag between the exhibition and the textile industry taking decisions on investments. But this exhibition gave an opportunity to the spinners to take capex decisions based on the market conditions.

On the focus of LMW this time at the show, Rajendran said the innovative products displayed at the exhibition by LMW were mainly focused on improved productivity with automation becoming important due to shortage of skilled manpower in the spinning industry.

Responding to a query on whether the slowdown in the textile sector impacted the order flow to LMW, its Finance Director said that the “performance of the textile spinning industry is always cyclical”.  The steep fluctuation in the cotton prices during the year 2010-11 had resulted in huge losses for the mills on account of holding of stocks and also because of coverage of cotton. This has also been reflected by way of “deferment of deliveries by the customers and also in inflow of fresh orders”.

The Textile Ministry and also State Governments had announced their own policy initiatives to “give a fillip to the Textile Industry” and since the cyclical nature in this industry is inevitable globally, “we have to wait and watch”, he said.

Asked what the Government should do to help the textile industry and textile machinery manufacturers to tide over the present crisis, Rajendran felt that the Government should have a firm policy in respect of cotton exports. He wanted the spinning industry to get technological upgradation facility during the Plan period 2012-2017 and the interest cost on working capital to be on par with the international rates to enable the industry to stay cost-competitive. He added that glitches in power supply should be removed.

The initiatives taken by the Government for the setting up of textile parks and clusters should be completed as planned. The skill development programme initiated by Textile Ministry and Ministry of Heavy Engineering by way of setting up of clusters, training centres and R&D facilities to be implemented in a timebound manner. 

The 9th India ITME is showcasing textile technology, machinery, accessories and services by exhibitors from 49 countries and is expected to draw 1 lakh visitors, according to the IITME web site.

COMMENT NOW