Buoyed by the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and free trade agreements with the UAE and Australia, the industry expects India’s exports of manmade fibre (MMF) textiles to increase 75% to $11.4 billion in 2030 from around $6.5 billion in 2021-22.
India is the second largest producer of MMF after China.
Curtains, drapes and interior blinds, curtain or bed valances of synthetic fibres, tents of synthetic fibres and tarpaulins are some of the products which can drive this growth.
“Technical textiles is a sunrise sector and the future of this industry,” said a government official, adding that ambitious targets have been set for it.
Currently, MMF dominates global textile fibre consumption, with a 72% share, while natural fibre accounts for 28%. The share of MMF has been steadily increasing due to the inherent limitations of growth of cotton and other natural fibres.
The industry’s vision includes tapping new markets such as Vietnam, Japan, China and Poland, besides the existing ones, including the US, Turkey, the UK and Brazil, where India has about 5% share in exports of MMF textiles.
The plan is also to improve capacities of filament-based woven and knitted fabrics and processing of man-made filament yarn based fabrics.
“Manmade fibre textiles are environment friendly and sustainable as they require less water compared to cotton textiles, are cheaper and more value addition can be done on them,” said Bhadresh Dodhia, chairman, Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council.
The council has prepared the vision.
Dodhia added that technical textiles are largely made of MMF and changing lifestyles, concern for safety and health will lead to more use of technical textiles.
India maintained its exports share in global trade of MMF textiles at 3.4% from 2016-2021, but the challenge emanates from Bangladesh, Turkey, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan and African countries enjoying duty-free access to all the major markets such as the EU and the US while Indian products attract 10-34% duty.
As per the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, globally, MMF products have about 55% share in global textile trade.