KSTC forms six-member cell

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With an eye on the recuperating recession-hit global textile market, a six-member cell has been constituted at the Kerala State Textile Corporation for the immediate implementation and commissioning of four highly-sophisticated mills at Uduma, Komalapuram, Pinarayi and Kozhikode. Of the four, three are brand-new, while the fourth one is rising up from the ashes and therefore almost as good as new.

The members of the cell, who are supposed to push the projects through the green channels, include the KSTC Chairman, Managing Director, Additional Secretary to the Industries Department and three technical experts.

The deadline for the commissioning has been set for January 2011, when the mills be equipped to meet the needs and standards of the domestic markets and to a certain extent, the global market.

Highly-sophisticated machineries are being imported from Italy, Belgium, Germany and Japan for the two spinning and weaving units at Pinarayi and Komalapuram and the mills at Uduma and Kozhikode.

“Once our highly-sophisticated new mills become operational at Uduma, Komalapuram, Pinarayi and Kozhikode, we will definitely start thinking of yarn exports,” said KSTC chairman P Nandakumar.

The KSTC is eyeing exports mainly because China, one of the leading producers of yarn and textiles, is facing extreme shortage of textile labourers despite wage hike up to 21 percent and large-scale recruitment initiatives.  Yawning gaps in production are also expected from Pakistan because of the political instability and from Bangladesh, which is facing severe gas shortage.

Kerala is probably the only state in the country to invest heavily into spinning and weaving mills in the public sector. The optimism is also based on the resurgence of the domestic market, as it happened in China.  “We have a huge population and clothes are a basic need. So even if European countries fail to rise from the economic turmoil they are in, we can always find a good market in the country itself. Domestic markets are projected to soar even if exports fail,” said Nandakumar.

What Kerala aims at is reducing the production cost, especially since the power situation in the state is much better than many other neighbouring states where spinning mills are aplenty.

“Tamil Nadu, for example, had between four-and-a-half to seven hours of power cut last year. Here power interruption is much lower. Now we are trying to bring down the production cost and increase productivity,” said Nandakumar. Modernisation of the mills is one way by which the KSTC plans to increase productivity. The Malabar Spinning Mills, when all three phases of modernisation are completed, will have over 25,000 spindles. The hi-tech weaving factory that is coming up along with the spinning mill on a two-acre campus at Pinarayi will have over 36 sophisticated looms and the open-end spinning mill coming up at Uduma can produce 7.5 metric tonnes of yarn per day.

The expansion in the spinning industry is all set to bring in employment opportunities to skilled workers. As many as 1,000 vacancies maybe created once all the modernised new mills becomes operational.  The KSTC is also planning to open a couple of textile testing units in the state which, equipped with the latest machinery, can test the quality of not just the textile but even that of the yarn, which will help KSTC to export high quality yarn and textiles.