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The Textile Magazine
SEPTEMBER 2011
ICC
to showcase next generation
carding solutions
ITMA 2011
[preview]
Indian Card Clothing Co. Ltd.
(ICC) has the distinction of being
an independent manufacturer of
clothing for cards. “Being a neutral
player enables us to work closely
with all our customers”, says Mr. H.
Chandrasekhar, General Manager
(Sales and Marketing), ICC, which
caters to the reclothing market both
in the domestic and export markets.
ICC has been associated with
the domestic Indian spinning in-
dustry for over 55 years by offer-
ing a complete range of products
for high-speed carding machines
that process natural or man-made
fibre. Efforts are being made to
strengthen the brand in the wake
of mounting competition.
Says Mr. Chandrasekhar: “At
ITMA 2011 the focus of ICC will be
on the new products introduced for
the latest generation cards. We will
showcase the newly introduced flat
tops, NEXTRA, and the modified
design of Triumph Tops. We will
also be displaying totally cleaned
doffer wires for high-speed cards”.
Currently about 20 per cent of
the company’s sales are for the
export market, mainly Bangladesh,
Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey and Thai-
land. “With our new plant in Nala-
garh now operational, we would
like to expand our business in the
existing markets first. We also have
presence in other markets and
ITMA will give us an opportunity to
display our latest products”, adds
Mr. Chandrasekhar.
Currently, five major manufac-
turers dominate the card cloth-
ing industry for short staple fibre.
Trutzschler Card Clothing GmbH,
a subsidiary of Trutzschler GmbH,
was created by acquiring the Euro-
pean and later the American busi-
ness assets of J.D. Hollingsworth on
Wheels Inc. Graf + Cie AG, now
owned by Rieter Textile Systems
Division of Rieter Holdings Ltd.,
has grown organically. Trutzsch-
ler offers card clothing as original
equipment supplier to cards manu-
factured by its parent company,
while Graf supplies card clothing
to Rieter cards.
Bekaert Carding Solutions (BCS),
based in Belgium with a predomi-
nantly Chinese manufacturing
base, grew by acquiring several
small and large card clothing
manufacturers in Europe, including
English Card Clothing, a division
of Carclo Group plc, Sobelcard NV
and Damgaard GmbH. Bekaert
Carding Solutions, together with
Lakshmi Card Clothing Ltd. (LCC)
and Indian Card Clothing Co. Ltd.
(ICC) are the other three global
players in the short-staple carding
segment.
The long-staple carding segment
is divided into either manufacturers
of flexible card clothing or metallic
card clothing. ICC, Biotti Fabbrica
di Scardassi Srl and Arimos.a.s are
three of the major manufactur-
ers of flexible card clothing, while
Trutzschler, Graf, BCS and Gar-
nett Wire Ltd., a subsidiary of ICC,
manufacture metallic card clothing
for long staple fibre.
In 2010-11, ICC clocked a turn-
Mr. H. Chandrasekhar,
General Manager (Sales and Marketing)
By K. Gopalakrishnan