Product development key to growth of viscose in India

Reena Mital

The Indian viscose industry has begun looking up, with fibre and filament yarn capacities increasing. Some of the existing players who had stopped manufacturing the yarn as the same had become unviable, have restarted production. For instance, Baroda Rayon Corporation (BRC), has again started making viscose filament yarn, producing around 300 tonnes per month. Similarly, Grasim, India’s sole viscose staple fibre manufacturer, is set to increase its fibre capacity by the end of the year.

India is the largest manufacturer of viscose staple fibre (VSF) in Asia, with current VSF production at around 2,21,500 tonnes per annum, while VFY production is around 53,165 tonnes per annum, excluding tyre yarn. The Indian VFY industry is the second largest in the world. China enjoys the leading position among regular VFY producing nations. Around 58 per cent of the total world production of VFY is produced in China followed by India at around 17 per cent.

China’s VFY production has been increasing steadily, from 125,000 tonnes in 2001 to 185,000 tonnes in 2003. Other major producers are CIS countries, with production at 30,000 tonnes per annum, Western Europe 19,000 tonnes per annum, Japan 14,000 tonnes per annum. Total world production of VFY is around 317,800 tonnes per annum.

While China is the largest manufacturer of VFY, its capacity utilisation has come down over the years due to the labour intensive nature of production, and because of the availability of cheaper substitutes to viscose.

Around 5000 MT of VFY is exported from India out of the total production and around 30-35 per cent of the yarn is indirectly exported in the form of fabrics/apparels besides direct exports. Exports of fabrics and made-ups made of VFy were to the tune of Rs 91.93 crore during 2004-05, as against exports of Rs 75.76 crore during 2003-04, an increase of about 20 per cent. In terms of volumes, exports during 2004-05 were 11,681 square metres, as against 10,610 square metres in 2003-04.

Within the country, Gujarat, and mainly Surat, is the largest consumer of the yarn, accounting for almost 85 per cent of the domestic demand. These are then mainly converted into georgettes and crepes, used in saris, dress materials, etc. Even as exports of VFY and of fabrics and made-ups is increasing, industry experts believe there isn’t much of product development happening in this segment. Moreover, awareness about the fibre and its properties is also quite low. Says Mr M P Joseph, secretary general, Association of Man-Made Fibre Industry of India (AMFII), “There is need to promote the use of rayon fabrics among designers and manufacturers of made-ups and garments. Today, even as some designers may use such fabrics, they are not always aware that this is rayon. This awareness needs to be created.”

Towards this end, the association, at its recent annual general meeting, organised an interaction between designers and viscose manufacturers, to understand the properties and applications of viscose, as also the requirements of the designers and end-users. “The designers were unanimous in voicing their opinion that viscose has been underutilised because of a lack of awareness among fashion designers and end-users,” said Mr Joseph.

According to officials of Indian Rayon and Industries, the largest VFY manufacturer in India, “There is also need for product development and R&D in this segment. New product applications also have to be explored. Except for a few of the bigger players, not many are focussing in this area.

For Grasim Industries, R&D is a very important focus area, and the company is working with a number of home textile manufacturers in the south and elsewhere, to promote the use of viscose fibre. State Grasim officials, “Viscose fibre is a lot like silk, and we using this fibre for making carpets and rugs. The look is exactly like silk, but the costs are lower. We are also using viscose for making draperies, bedlinen, etc, and response from the buyers has been good. We partner with some smaller manufacturers and help them to use these fibres.”

While there is a lot of R&D in the fibre, filament yarn is lagging. Said the Indian Rayon official, “There is not much of value additions happening here, even as there is a lot of scope. There is some improvement though, and manufacturers are trying out newer blends of rayon and nylon, polyester rayon, fancy yarns, and in the knitting segment specially, a combination of yarns have been developed and used successfully.” Another important area is embroidery yarn, where viscose yarns is widely used. “Internationally, viscose blended fabrics are extensively used in apparel. That is not the case in India,” believes Mr Joseph. One neglected area is technical textiles and nonwovens, where viscose finds wide applications internationally, but in India this has not happened, mainly because the technical textiles segment is not a very developed one.