‘Knitcon 2015’, a day’s conference held in Kolkata on advancement in knitting, processing and stitching industry, discussed various issues relating to those segments by experts in the field.
Speakers, including some from international textile machine manufacturing companies and experts in this field attended the event, organized, for the first time in the region, by the Federation of Hosiery Manufacturers Association of India (FOHMA) in association with West Bengal Hosiery Association (WBHA) and Bengal Hosiery Manufacturer Association (BHMA).
Earlier in the Inaugural session, M. Chaudhary, Regional Head, Textile Commissioner’s Office (Eastern Region) outlined the assistance it could offer to the hosiery and knitting sector. He emphasized the need for more manufacturing units for faster development of the sector. Referring to the importance of skill development programme, Chaudhary said his office had set up a training centre at Ranaghat in Nadia district of West Bengal where people are trained to serve the industry. The companies can hire skill personnel from there for the Industry.
In his Welcome Address, K B Agarwala, President of FOHMA mentioned that the Indian knitwear industry which started as a domestic player, has expanded into the global markets with great success. And despite 70% of units operating in the unorganized sector, the growth is praiseworthy – both on the domestic as well as the exports front. The Indian knitwear industry has evolved significantly over the past few years – owing to several inter-related factors that have worked positively for this segment. The slowing down of production in many countries, the bullish nature of the fashion industry and cash rich consumers seeking newer products & stylish outfits have shored up the demand for knitwear products. The online trend for purchasing is growing rapidly and has opened up new vistas for product marketing. He hoped that the domestic knitwear players would make efforts to innovate and upgrade their facilities – so as to become competitive and sustain themselves amidst local and global competition.
Pradeep Arora, convener of KNITCON 2015 spoke about how this Conference was conceived with the objective of getting insights about knitting, processing and stitching – so that existing manufacturers can know about the new technologies, adopt them and grow their businesses. While this conference was being organized in the eastern region where the knitting industry was predominant, the learnings were applicable for every manufacturer located in India.
In the ‘fibre and yarn session’, speakers discussed various aspects of yarns in the context of growing cost of cotton fabric resulting in higher price of the cotton made item, which is now becoming beyond the reach of common people. They stressed the need for selecting good quality of yarns producing different parts of the country for substitute to cotton. They felt that more attention should be given for collection of proper quality of yarns for producing quality items in the face of severe competition world-wide.
Manufacturers should select proper types of cotton avoiding contaminated thread that causes qualitative differences from the quality one. They said India being producer of multi-category yarns, there is no dearth of quality fibre which should be chosen with great care and proper verification. At the same time, polyester is now becoming the fast growing sector which has to be utilized properly to meet the growing demand of the domestic market in the country. They also urged the manufacturers to take advantage of the declining export in some neighbouring countries and increase their export volume to obtain the new markets.
In the knitting session, representatives from several international textile related machine manufacturing companies in their presentations highlighted the advancement taking place in the machinery front and the trend of manufacturing companies adopting the new technology to boost quality and production in the current global scenario. They also demonstrated the latest technology invented by the companies to bring about a significant change in production capacity as well as quality of the products.
The processing section saw a galaxy of some of the best equipment manufacturers under one roof viz.: Thies, Fong’s, Bruckner, Ferraro, Bianco and Corino.
Each of the manufacturer’s representative dwelt upon the salient features of their equipments along with the latest developments being evolved by their research team. Further, they apprised the audience of the types of processes possible on their machines and various kinds of savings possible by virtue of the latest technological advancements.
Apart, this segment also saw the participation of Britacell Silicones. They were clear about the contribution of its products on the sustainability issue and put emphasis on the various products giving the kind of benefits on water saving, effluent treatment facilitation and maintaining an ecological balance. They also spoke about the various kinds of value added finishes possible with their new products. All in all, it was worthwhile experience in a short burst of time with total clarity on the issue.
The Garmenting and Printing segment had a very interesting thing to offer. The conference witnessed the participation of one of the best creator of ultra-modern garmenting line in India. He gave a clear insight into the ways and means of setting up a modern garmenting line and advised on the modalities of the same. This was a novel experience for the participants and as it gave the importance of productivity and quality and development of local female personnel for the unit, it was a new viewpoint. Especially for West Bengal, as it has been tardy in the participation of female workers as compared to Tamil Nadu, the ideas worked very well.
M & R were the participants in the printing segment and their representative gave a nice presentation of their machine and the benefits thereof. The piece printing machine is now a big hit in this part of the country.
