The Indian Textile Industry is staring at one of the deadliest crisis ever. Mills have been shut across the country for the last one month, millions of jobs lost and export orders cancelled or put on hold.
Amidst the gloom and doom of the Corona virus pandemic, there is some green shoots though. The rising demand for PPE suits and face masks has seen the country’s leading technical textile manufacturers, swing into action. Coimbatore based Shiva Texyarn, one of the early movers in the technical textiles domain, is already making a mark with its high quality PPE coverall suits.
In an exclusive interview, Dr.S.K.Sundararaman, Managing Director of the company, who is also the Chairman of the Indian Technical Textiles Association (ITTA) gave an overview of the products that Shiva Texyarn is manufacturing and how the Corona virus pandemic has completely changed the dynamics of the Indian technical textiles industry forever.
“We are among the select few companies approved by the government for the manufacture of PPE coverall safety suits and masks. We are authorized for manufacture of fabrics as well as garments, with respect to these two products. While we have already commenced manufacture of PPE coverall safety suits, we expect to start production of face masks soon. Luckily we had the key ingredients required for the production of PPE suits ready with us, which allowed us to commence production right after the government gave the go ahead” said Dr.Sundararaman.
Is the textile industry’s product offering to fight the corona virus pandemic limited to only PPE suits and face masks? Replying to this he said: “From the textile industry perspective, these are the only two key product offerings. Other than these two products, goggles and face shields are being offered. A lot of makeshift materials are being tried out for face shields. So far as gloves are concerned, they were already available in plenty. So, as of now PPE suits and face masks are the ones that most of the manufacturers are focusing on.”
The company will be coming out with its range of face masks soon. “We will be making cloth masks, which will also have certain inserts of the filtering type,” he explained.
When queried as to whether the manufacturers of such products need any kind of certification from the government, Dr.Sundararaman replied: “With respect to the PPE suits, ministries such as the Union Ministry for Health and Textiles formed an empowered committee, which took a decision that there is a particular standard, i.e., ISO 16603 which has to be passed both by the fabric and garment. A special tape that is used in the seam sealing process also has to pass the test. There are no such specific standards for face masks, at least of now.”
“These are international standards. What it means is that while these coverall PPE suits have export potential, but for that to happen the manufacturers also need to get certain international certifications too in addition to adhering to the standards here,” he continued.
According to Dr.Sundararaman, who is also the Chairman of the Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA), around 25-30 members of the association have also started production of PPE suits and face masks.
“While Hindustan Latex Limited, a Mini Ratna, is the nodal procurement agency, SITRA, Coimbatore, DRDE, Gwalior and a couple of other ordinance factory labs are the nodal testing agencies for these products,” he revealed.
While such products have been launched for serving the needs of the society at large, looking at it purely from the point of view of the textile industry, do you perceive this as an opportunity? Replying to this Dr.Sundararaman stated:” From this perspective, definitely it is an opportunity, albeit a temporary one. Post this virus scare there will be a decline in demand. If absolute normalcy returns, then there will be nil demand. However, what I would say is that the Corona Virus scare has changed the Indian technical textile industry scene forever. Today dozens of companies who were not exactly focusing on the healthcare segment have now morphed into making PPE products. As we speak good volumes of seam sealing, mask making and fabric making machines are being imported into the country. The government is also putting in a lot of investment and seeing how to bring in testing centers for masks in regional areas. So, definitely there is a fillip to the technical textile industry.”
ITTA has been making concerted efforts to connect with the government during these trying times. “We are requesting the government to look at PPE as a complete sub set of technical textiles. We are also examining the proposals of different state governments as well as the union governments, which are now offering attractive incentives for PPE manufacturers, and trying to disseminate the information to our members.”
When asked whether India has the capacity to manufacture locally or still needed to import certain ingredients for PPE products, Dr.Sundararaman said, “There are certain elements that we still need to import. For example, with respect to the PPE suits, we still don’t have the technology to produce the barrier films. We just import the films and laminate them to the fabrics. There are certainly some gaps that need to be filled. However, given India’s long tradition as a textile manufacturer, I feel we are ahead of many other countries.”