The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) established in 1933 at the initiative of Sir R K Shanmugam Chetty, the first Finance Minister of independent India, has been rendering a range of services relating to policy matters, industrial relations and unit-level issues with the strong Secretariat consisting of highly competent professionals. The Association has been closely partnering various national apex bodies, State / Central Governments to deal with issues related to textiles, labour, power, environment and industry and playing a pivotal role for the development of the textile industry across the nation. It is the single largest employers’ organization representing the textile industry across the value chain in South India.
The Texfair event is normally organized once in two years. It is a unique event organized by the user industry association for the mutual benefit of manufacturers / suppliers of textile machinery, spares, accessories, equipments, etc., and the textile mills. This international event has been attracting suppliers from all over the world and visitors from all over the country. Many small and medium manufacturers who participated in earlier events have grown to a greater size today. Textile mills in this part of the country have been taking full advantage of the fair and make the investment prudently and reduce the cost of production. Coimbatore being the hub of textile business, all the earlier fairs had attracted large number of visitors and very good business to all the exhibitors.
Texfair 2016, the 10th event, was successfully organized during May 20-23, 2016, at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore, with infrastructure facilities of international standard including air-conditioning, pillar less halls. Though the industry has been reeling under continuous recession, 200 exhibitors participated with full enthusiasm and interest and made the event a grand success.
The event attracted around one lakh visitors. The conservative estimate made from the feedback given by the exhibitors reveal that they could get orders worth over Rs. 1,000 crores, apart from reconfirming their earlier orders. Most of the exhibitors showcased their new inventions which would enable the mills to conserve energy, improve quality, enable automation, online quality and production monitoring facilities, better ambient conditions, improving the working performance of the machine, producing value added products, low cost automation, etc.
Exhibitors from Gujarat, Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra and Punjab, besides Tamil Nadu, and also overseas exhibitors from China, Japan and the EU countries participated in the event.
Coinciding Texfair 2016, national seminars on the topics “Value addition opportunities in weaving”, “A right choice for Value addition and Diversification – Technical Textiles”, “Improving energy efficiency & productivity in Textile Mills” “Condition Monitoring applied in Textile Mills”, “Enhancing Spinning Mills profitability by value addition yarn”, “Benefits of “Structured water” for Textile Industry” were also held on May 21 and 22, which attracted over 150 participants.
The Texfair 2016 inaugural function was held on May 20, 2016. Dr. Palani G. Periasamy, President, the Southern India Chambers of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), was the Chief Guest, and Mr. E.K. Ponnuswamy, President, CODISSIA, was the Guest of Honour on the occasion.
In his welcome address, Mr. M. Senthilkumar, Chairman of the Association, referred to the international studies which projected the potential of Indian textile business to grow by 10-12 per cent in the domestic industry and 15 per cent in the export market, besides creating new jobs to the tune of 20 to 22 million. This would increase the business size to $350 billion by 2025 from the current level of $110 billion.
In his address, Mr. Ponnusamy appreciated the organizers of Texfair for giving an opportunity to showcase textile machines, spares, materials, additives, dies, etc., under one roof to help the textile value chain. He emphasized the need for redesigning new equipments, adopting new principles as being done in the world with conducive atmosphere in India.
He described Texfair event as a single window to address the needs of today and tomorrow related to new innovations, ideas and knowledge about new products.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Palani Periasamy appreciated SIMA for its role in developing the entire textile value chain right from cotton research & development. Since China is drifting away from textile manufacturing activities, India, the second largest textile manufacturing country in the world, would become the clothier of the globe in the coming decade. He urged all the textile machinery, spares and accessories manufacturers to focus more on innovation, energy services, automation, online contracts, etc., to make India globally competitive.
Mr. K. Vinayakam, Vice-Chairman, SIMA, proposed a vote of thanks.
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