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KNITWEAR INDUSTRY IN TIRUPUR Tirupur is a textile town
in Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu and is popularly known as Banian City /
Knit City. Tirupur is situated at 50 Kms. East of Coimbatore and the Municipal
area of town is spread over 27.20 Sq.Kms. with a population of around 7.00
lakhs. Tirupur is a Centre for cotton market and Cotton Ginning Factories.
Though Cotton Trading and Ginning operations has shrunk, Tirupur is still a
popular market for unginned cotton.
Tirupur, a developing township has already acquired high
ranking status and established its prominent existence in the world market.
Tirupur is one of the largest foreign exchange earner of the nation earning
Rs.5000 crores through 7000 units and provided ample employment opportunity to
around 6 lakh people.
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| Tirupur Kumaran Memorial Pillar |
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Tirupur is a textile town where
commerce precedes everything. Tirupur's gain stem from its performance in
technology and the quality of its macro economic environment. It also derives
much of its ascent from improved perception of its public service. Buyers from
35 countries frequently visits Tirupur regularly. Tirupur can deliver customized
samples in less than 12 hours; half a million pieces in a matter of days. 56% of
India's total knitwear exports come from Tirupur. No doubt, the Export Import
Policy of 2002-07 makes laudable tribute to Tirupur for its contribution to the
export efforts and calls it a 'Town of Export Excellence' The rich availability
of Raw materials, being in close proximity to Coimbatore which is a major centre
of cotton spinning industry in the Country makes Tirupur being able to access
its basic raw materials quickly and as and when required; the strong
entrepreneurial élan and personalized management contributes to efficient
management of negotiations and direct control of operations causing cost
effective competitiveness of the Industry; quick delivery and quality products
add dimension to the Tirupur's prowess as a centre to outsource excellent
products.
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NETAJI APPAREL PARK
A direct initiative of the
Tirupur Exporters' Association is to promote a state-of-the-art Netaji Apparel
Park at Tirupur spread over a sprawling 220-acre land in the
Avanashi-Perumanalloor National Highway, New Tirupur. 65 units will set up their
facilities here. The power for these units will be provided by captive power
plant having a capacity of 4 MW. Half a million liters of water will be supplied
to the Park by NTADCL. It will have aside from the units, green belt, R&D
facilities, Auditorium, Conference Halls, Buyers lounge, Working Women's hostel,
etc. This Park is expected to become operational by September 2004.
It
is the first of its kind promoted by the local entrepreneurs in the whole of
India while all the other Apparel Parks are 100% sponsored by the State
Government.
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| NETAJI APPAREL PARK |
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This dramatic transformation of Tirupur from domestic
market to international market is mainly attributed to the fact that most of
western countries started disbanding their garments manufacturing due to
pollution and high cost of labour. Concurrently, the Asian Tigers Japan, Hong
Kong, Taiwan and South Korea started moving to hi-tech areas thus enabling
Tirupur to capitalize the opportunity of penetrating into the European Market.
Besides, knitwear units catering for exports and local markets, there is
a large number of other ancillary any supporting industrial units operating for
manufacture of elastic tapes, cartons, printing of labels, polythene bags and
other packing materials.
The main reason for the successful phenomenal
growth rate in exports of knitwear items from Tirupur over a period of about two
decades, ultimately goes to its export culture, which is not found anywhere else
and also due to the following:-
- Easily availability of Hosiery yarn -
Availability of cheap/rural labours - Flexible attitude of entrepreneurs in
meeting demands of the buyers as for size of the order is not constraint one.
PRESENT SCENARIO
Export of knitwear products
from Tirupur has recorded a growth, both in quantity and value in terms of US
Dollars during calendar year 2003 compared to the previous calendar year.
Tirupur exported 370 million pieces worth $ 793 million of knitwear products
during the year 2003 compared to 349 million pieces valued at $ 667 million
shipped during the year2002.
Tirupur's contribution to the total value
of readymade garment exports (woven and knitted) from the country went up during
the 2003 compared to 2002. Meanwhile exports for the 2004 calendar from the
knitwear town looks positive.
CHANGING THE SCENARIO
Knitting industry in
Tirupur has emerged as a premier supplier of value added items earning high
foreign exchange. For the past 6 years, there was a phenomenal change in
technology and large number of sophisticated computerized knitting and
embroidery machines, full fledged processing units, individual machines,
compacting machines and other machinery required in knitwear manufacturing have
been imported. Moreover exporters have started concentrating on value added
products and high unit value realisation.
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