The event promises to be the largest confluence of technology, professionals and policymakers from the Indian textiles and apparel industry. It its third edition this year, ITMACH India is positioning itself itself as a must-visit platform for machinery makers desirous of meeting investors, demonstrating new innovations, and exchanging ideas with user industries.
The third edition of ITMACH India will be held from December 5–8 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Coming barely six months after ITMA 2019 at Barcelona, ITMACH India is being seen as an important event for the Indian textiles industry. The organisers are expecting this one to be bigger in scale than the earlier editions, hosting more than 500 exhibitors compared to 350 in 2017. The Indian Textile Sourcing (ITS) Exhibition 2019 will be held concurrently with ITMACH India 2019.
According to the organisers, India "offers enormous opportunities for investment to strengthen its position in this trade. Simultaneously, her neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are emerging hubs for textiles and apparel manufacturing and trade. The large and growing textiles industry in India and neighboring countries need adequate interaction with technology providers. The industry looks for a first-hand experience of the latest technologies."
They have also provided a backdrop to the event: "The Indian textiles industry is going through a restructuring phase. Investments in spinning are expected to slow down for the next couple of years. The decentralised weaving sector, which manufactures around 65–70 per cent of the fabric in the country, is upgrading its obsolete technologies. Processing continues to remain a challenge for the industry, and zero liquid discharge is a solution for this polluting segment. Garmenting too needs to pick up, to cater to the growing domestic and global demand. Labour availability and costs are another obstacle to growth and profits of the industry."
The organisers expect industry to continue to invest in technologies that offer better quality, productivity, automation, sustainability. And, with many states offering a number of incentives to the textiles and apparel industry, investments are expected to go up.
On how ITMACH 2019 is branding itself this time, director DJ Gohain says, "ITMACH India 2019 is assisting the industry in adopting and investing in modern manufacturing technology after seeing it in operation. Our aim is to bring first-hand experience of the latest innovations in textile machinery and technology to potential investors and entrepreneurs rather than rely on claims made by marketers. Today, textile manufacturing technology has evolved so much that investors have choices to select the right process suiting their need from among a host of suppliers. ITMACH India would be the platform to interact with suppliers."
He continues, "For machinery and technology suppliers who launched new products and processes at ITMA shall have the opportunity to showcase them to a larger Indian audience. The event is being hosted in India’s largest modern venue in Gandhinagar, just at the outer periphery of Ahmedabad which is well connected by road, rail and air. Today, Ahmedabad is vibrant city for business and tourism and thus, visitors and exhibitors can explore both business and leisure together."
However, textile manufacturing means big investment. Herein, the question that naturally arises in one's mind is about how the slowdown in the global as well as Indian economy affected the machinery sector. Contends Gohain, "Not all textile manufacturing projects need large investments but yes, today for a manufacturing plant with an ‘economy of scale’ size is important. One must have globally competitive plant sizes and operations if investing in the textiles and apparel sector."
He elaborates, "The economic slowdown in India and other major markets have certainly put brakes on the pace of investment. This has had an adverse impact on several machinery and technology suppliers, especially spinning and preparatory spinning equipment suppliers. We are aware of a few cases where customers have placed orders for machinery but not released further payments to take delivery or even not paid the advance amount. So, machinery manufacturers who have less orders are taking measures to cut costs and even optimising their workforce. Some players are also exploring new markets which were not on their radar to tide over the challenges."
Challenges can lead to new markets and customers. The profile page of the event website slugs it thus: ITMACH India—Discover Markets, Find New Customers. Gohain explains the context, "ITMACH India is an international exhibition by exhibitor participation. Also, India is the second largest market for textile machinery with an average annual import of $4 billion. However, not all foreign machinery and technology supplying companies have a proper foothold or customer base in India in spite of having good performance and cost competitiveness. This also holds true for several Indian textile machinery and accessories suppliers. ITMACH India thus offers a unique opportunity to the machinery makers to Discover Markets, Find New Customers."
