Indian Technical Textiles Industry to Reach $28.7 Billion by 2017

If projections hold, the technical textiles industry in India could be poised for explosive growth. Five years ago, the size of this market segment was about $7.6 billion. While the growth from that figure to the current market size of $10.3 billion shows an impressive increase of almost 36%, it pales in comparison to the growth expected between now and 2017.

Speaking at an event organized by India’s Ministry of Textiles and the PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore on August 3, officials said they expect the technical textiles market in India to skyrocket to $28.7 billion by 2016-17, an increase of approximately 180% in only five years. The industrial segment of the technical textiles segment, which makes up about 8% of the overall technical textiles market, is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 11%.

For cotton to grab a larger share of that rapidly growing market, it will need to make gains in strength, according to Arunachalam Subramaniam, a veteran textile consultant with more than 60 years of experience. He recommended that the cotton industry investigate developing high-strength, short staple cottons for industrial applications. Cotton with a staple length of 25.4 mm to 27 mm and a strength of 30 g/tex would be ideal for technical textiles, he says.