The garment producers in Tiruppur and the engineering industry in Coimbatore plan to work together to make machinery spares required for the knitwear supply chain.
K.M. Subramanian, president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA), told The Hindu the knitwear industry in Tiruppur imports majority of the machinery and just 10 % of the spares for the machinery are critical and need to be purchased from the original manufacturers. The electronic circuits for many of the machinery can be sourced locally at very less prices compared to imports. By buying the spares locally, the knitwear units can realise significant cost savings. Hence, the TEA has initiated a project with all industrial associations in Tiruppur, the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) in Coimbatore, and PSG College of Technology and Sri Eshwar College of Engineering in Coimbatore.
A meeting was held in Tiruppur recently with all the stakeholders. The colleges will prepare a detailed project report for this initiative, he said.
Joint Secretary of TEA Kumar Duraisamy said almost 90 % of the machinery used by the knitwear supply chain in Tiruppur is imported from the US, EU, China, and Taiwan. Import of spares for the machinery is not only expensive but also challenging because of the shipment time, import levies, restrictions, and servicing time.
Further, most of the machinery have electronic components now and the small and medium-scale enterprises are unable to source these components at high prices from other countries. Hence, the TEA took the initiative to encourage local production of the spares. “This can lead to the big overseas machinery manufacturers exploring possibilities at a later stage of Indian production of the spares and even the machinery,” he said.
All the industry associations will submit details of the machinery used by their members, the main spares in need, the costs, etc. The TEA will then display the main spares for the Codissia members who can take production of these spares. The individual associations in Tiruppur can also look at bulk sourcing of the spares depending on the requirement and the data collected, he said.
