The Textile Engineering Industry (TEI) in India is one of the five key sectors of the Capital Goods industry. It has been the cornerstone of the Capital Goods industry for the last 75 years and is capable of manufacturing all the machinery for the spinning, weaving and processing sectors. However, there is also a substantial import of textile machinery specifically in respect of weaving, processing, knitting and garmenting and also nonwoven and technical textiles machinery. The manufacturing scenario in India is improving, in keeping with the Make in India mandate issued by the Government of India.

Textile Machinery manufacturing in India began with the manufacture of spares and accessories. During the 1940s the sector started producing machinery, and has gradually developed since then. Most manufacturing companies collaborated with foreign companies in the beginning till the liberation of trade and industrial policies in 1991-92.

Over the last 70 years, the textile engineering industry has established and proved its machine making capabilities. It has the potential to be the largest manufacturing hub for the world, second to China.

There are over 1600 textile machinery makers in India though the manufacturing facility of many of the existing units in the MSME sector needs to be upgraded. The industry needs a Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) for modernisation of the manufacturing facility/infrastructure like the textile industry.

Data on import of Textile Machinery, Parts and Accessories for the period April 2014 to March 2015: Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata

The imports are more than the production even if we consider the items which are produced in the country. There is, of course, import of second-hand machinery which affects the domestic sales adversely, particularly when the domestic demand is sluggish. Large imports of cheap Chinese textile machinery also affect the domestic industry. There is a need to encourage buying of domestic machinery of equivalent technology.

Data on export of Textile Machinery, Parts and Accessories for the period April 2014 to March 2015: Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata

The exports during 2014-15 were estimated at Rs2466 crore, against Rs2277 crore achieved during 2013-14.

Exports of Textile Machinery have been increasing thanks to the foreign direct investment (FDI) as a portion of goods are earmarked for Asian developing countries.

India is self-sufficient in ginning and spinning machinery except auto-feed and auto-doff, auto-coner and open-end spinning machine. Qualitatively and quantitatively the weaving preparatory machinery manufactured by the domestic players are also enough to meet the demand. It is only the main weaving machinery, i.e. high-tech shuttleless Rapier looms above speed 350 rpm, which are not made in India. Similarly, Airjet and Waterjet looms above 600 rpm are also not made in India.

India now produces most kinds of processing and finishing machinery. Special purpose machinery with limited demand, such as the continuous decatising machine, wider width processing machine and so on that are not made in India. Domestic manufacturers meet more than 50% of processing and finishing machinery.

There are about 50 MSMEs manufacturing synthetic machinery. These are mainly located in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot. The total capacity of synthetic machinery is approx. Rs1000 crore. About 90% of demand is met locally.

The total capacity of jute machinery is about Rs70 crore. The technology of jute machinery is comparatively older. Import of jute machinery is to the level of approx. Rs10 crore.

Many locally developed attachments and accessories conform to international technology standards. These include weft straighteners and cloth guides. Domestic sources meet about 80% of the requirement. The total capacity is Rs850 crore and OEMs receive approx. 40-50% parts.

It is estimated that parts/components/spares and accessories worth Rs1500 cr. are imported. These include parts and accessories such as compact spinning attachment, automatic yarn splicer, PLC controls, dedicated components for shuttleless looms, electronic controls for high-speed shuttleless looms, electronic dobby, electronic jacquards (this is a recent development), microprocessor and PLC controls for warping and sizing machines, hi-tech temperature indicator and controller, etc.

There are no manufacturers of industrial quality garment-making and hosiery-knitting machines. However, there are domestic sewing machinery makers and also ordinary knitting machine makers.