LMW is an established textile machinery manufacturer in India and is one among the global players to produce the entire range of spinning machinery.
It caters to the domestic market as well as export demand with quality products across the globe. The company has been consistently at the forefront of technological advancements in textile machinery. Over a period of time, it has gained worldwide reputation for its state-of-the-art technology and high quality standards.
The company goes beyond just providing machinery for the textile industry. The comprehensive range of spinning systems that are offered are accompanied by various value-added services. These services are meant mainly to familiarise customers with the systems and help them attain optimum performance output.
In an interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Ramanadane.C, General Manager – Marketing & Sales, Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd., spoke in detail about the company’s performance in 2016-17 and plans for the future.
Excerpts:
How was the year 2016-17 for LMW?
LMW successfully executed many projects during 2016-17. Despite the overall business slump experienced in India due to many factors, LMW could to perform well by supplying the comprehensive range of spinning systems accompanied by various value-added services. The year 2016-17 is also a successful year in terms of regularization of new products and technologies in the market.
What were the key achievements of LMW during 2016-17?
Despite the volatile situation that prevailed in the industry, LMW has made strong inroads into the compact yarn segment during 2016-17 thanks to the stable performance of the Lakshmi compact system and acceptance of the performance by top end spinners. Also during 2016-17 we have increased the market share of cards and successfully launched the new product Card LC636 and Lakshmi Winders.
How was the overall growth in the spinning industry?
The global shipments in 2016 was 7.88 million spindles, down by 13% compared with 2015 at 9 million spindles. Indian shipments have contributed nearly 30% of the overall global shipments during 2016. In general, there was dip in business during 2016 in both global and Indian markets.
Can you highlight some of the major projects executed by LMW during 2016-17?
We have executed many projects in 2016-17 with the project sizes varying from 25,000 to 100,000 spindles. The machines supplied to these projects produce a variety of yarns like combed, carded, compact, SIRO and special yarns. The machines supplied to these projects are with high standards of automation, energy saving features and readiness to meet the Industry 4.0 standards.
At INDIA ITME you had launched a series of new products. How was the response post the exhibition?
LMW showcased the following products in each of its sub-system:
Card sliver system: High Production Card LC636 with 1.5 mtr working width and higher active carding area.
Combing system: New Breaker Drawframe LDB3 with 40” can with auto can changer and New Finisher Drawframe LDF3 with enhanced features suitable for processing cotton, blends & synthetic with a maximum mechanical delivery speed of 1100MPM with online quality monitoring and Comber LK700 with 700 NPM were launched in the exhibition.
Ring spinning system: Speedframe LF4200A with dual drive arrangement for drafting was displayed with the automatic roving transportation system; Change Gearless Compact Ringframe LRJ9/SX Series, with the option of producing Compact, Siro, Slub, Multi Twist yarns with the new drafting drive arrangements; and Spin connect, a web based monitoring and control application which makes Spinning mills to align with the Industry 4.0 requirements
The innovations showcased by LMW attracted global visitors and generated huge enquiries, and we also have started supplying these products to the market, except Comber LK700 which will be released at the appropriate time during 2018.
What can we expect from LMW in 2017-18 in terms of new products and technologies?
Automation and energy saving solutions are the need of the hour, and hence our focus is mainly on providing such solutions cost effectively. Also LMW products and its features are enriched to adopt to the Industry 4.0 requirements.
In the last few years we saw some large-scale spinning projects, which have been mostly executed or under execution. Is excess capacity in spinning?
As we all aware, the large spinning projects executed in the last few years are to meet the internal consumption of yarns, particularly from the bed & bath segment. Such large projects and technical capabilities to make top end quality yarns have put India in a most prestigious position in the supply of home textiles globally. Today India is the most reliable and quality supplier of yarns / fabrics for the home textiles segment and in future shall make such strong position in other segments too. Hence spindles capacity should never be looked in relation to domestic consumptions, and it should bealways be related to global requirements. Therefore spindle capacity addition in India by quality yarn producers will take place more aggressively in the years to come.
How is LMW performing in other global markets?
Globally the year 2016 was not good due to political disturbance, terror issues and cancellation of TPP.
LMW has fared well in the global markets in spite of the shrinking market size in 2016 and expected to do better in 2017 considering the improvements in market conditions and the launch of new products, Card LC 636, Draw frame LDF3 and Ring frame LR9 SX.
LMW has made good progress in Vietnam, Indoneisa and Bangladesh in recent years and increased its market share significantly. It is also doing better in Turkey and Pakistan.
There is a severe shortage of manpower faced by textile mills. How does LMW overcome this problem with increasing levels of automation in its machines?
Manpower availability and cost is the most important factor faced by textile mills across the globe. Automation in machinery and processes is the only solution to overcome the above. LMW products are already built with automation features and will continue to bring out more cost-effective fruitful solutions.
How is LMW ensuring that its machines are energy efficient?
Energy is an important factor in the production process of the textile industry and LMW has its focus on energy savings products with a view to increasing the profitability of customers.
The LMW product development team has implemented many such features in the products by implementing high energy efficient motors, machine suction controls through inverters, most modern drives, etc.,
How is LMW improving its service capabilities both within India and globally?
At LMW booking of required spare parts is made very easy through the E-spares portal which is available 24x7x365. Also we have put in place the stock & sale business model for spares management which helped in meeting the requirements of customers effectively.
Round-the-clock service requests registration through mobile apps provision helped serve the customer within the stipulated time.
How do you expect the textile industry to perform during 2017-18 and beyond? Particularly how do you see prospects for the spinning industry?
Textile being a basic need, its demand-driven growth is certain globally. The cyclical phenomena of ups & downs in the industry are very common which the industry has witnessed in the past and has overcome the challenges with more energy and innovation strengths.
The Government initiatives for modernization and development of weaving, processing and garmenting will bring in value addition in the textile sector which, in turn, will also aid the growth of the spinning segment.
Also the initiatives like establishment of Integrated Textile Clusters / Parks will boost growth of the textile sector during the current and future years.