INTRODUCTION

In India, the knitting and knit wear sector of the textile and garment industry have so far been treated like poor cousins of the woven sector. Without undermining the importance of the other sectors, if we take a look at the advantages of knitting over weaving, knitting scores well on many parameters. Not only that the fabrics and garments produced through knitting are more comfortable and economical. Besides knits breath better, are more absorbent and demand lesser maintenance cost. They fit into a highly casual to moderately formal lifestyle. Today in the world, knits account for nearly 45% of the total apparel consumption. Also, in the last two to three decades, the growth rate of the knitting based textile products has been faster as compared to the woven. Significantly, in Indias case the knits share has been only 15% showing a huge disparity from the global consumption pattern. Though India has made substantial progress in knitwear exports over the last decade, there is still a tremendous room for growth, which will largely depend on new investments, product and market efforts.

In the raw material front, as for as cotton is concerned, the situation as turned in favor of the industry. Good yarn of world class quality at economical rate is available in the plenty. Although overall growth pattern of the industry has been satisfactory, there is a considerable backlog in the processing sector. Yarn and fabric processing, dyeing, compacting, printing, mercerizing etc., had been till recently very much behind the State of the Art processing facilities available in other competitive countries like China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malasia, Turkey. If technical upgradation of the processing segment can be achieved, end product quality can be improved and value addition would enhance substantially. While manufacturing units have availed of all kinds of export benefits, there are virtually no incentives for processing units. In order to achieve all the objectives of vision 21st Century coordinated Government and industry efforts are essentially required. Adequate provisions in the national and regional planning to provide better infrastructure facilities, fiscal incentives and liberal industrial policies and attitudes. Simply making provisions may not help.

It is in this context the human resources have to be developed at all levels. Without developing necessary skills,Quality and Volume growth objectives may be difficult to fulfill.

From the above discussion, it is clear that, the different production centres likes Spinning, Knitting, Processing, Quality Control and export departments should work together in upgradation of technology by identifying the limitation in the prevailing technology. The Technical Institution, Fashion Institutions, R & D Centres along with Industries should have more interaction to develop new products to compete in the global market, otherwise this industry cannot sustain against the challenges posted by the other country.

ABOUT SILK INDUSTRY

Traditionally, silk was processed and consumed in producing countries. Silk also has its specific characteristics. Its dyeing affinity, draping qualities comfort in weaving, and lustre are unequaled. Silk has changed its consumer profile from being a luxury product for the masses. This change has been brought about by processing of silk to bring it to within reach of people other than elite.

Further, the springing up of a new consumer group of young generation, with more money to spend in view of the rise in family income owing to the increase in the number of employed women, has also been attracted towards silk.

More over, the growing number of young designers using silk as a material has brought silk goods with in reach of these consumers who would not otherwise be able to afford garments from renowned fashion houses.

One should also agree that as the international trade is getting liberalised, the market is becoming more competitive. Besides, the changing consumerism and the increasing demand for eco-freindly textiles are clear indicators of the fact that the silk market is turning out to be a buyers market  with the emergence of different consumer groups of silk. Silk no longer can sell it self with its traditional product range at the global market, but has to catch up the demands for new products and designs. The textile industry demands tremendous dynamism and silk is no exception. There is an urgent need for the Indian silk exporters to adopt aggressive marketing and concentrate on diversified value added products to be in competition.

Diversification In End Use

Prior to the introduction of sand washed silk, traditional silk products wear geared only for womens wear. Use of mens wear was limited to shorts, socks, neckties, handkerchief or under wear.

With the introduction of sand washed silk, a wide range of mens wear has opened up. The traditional silk garments was limited to evening wear, sand washed silk garments are capable of being worn at any time. Moreover, silk garments and accessories were being sold only in boutique, they are now available in departmental stores. Sand washed garments for men and women on the other hand, are available even in smaller shops.

Innovations In Silk Garments

Encouraged by the broadening of the market base, developing countries have been innovating on silk garments to open up the market further. China, for example, introduced thermal under wear in North America to mountain climbers, skiers, hand gliders, rock climbers etc,.

Knitted silk goods for under wear, outer wear, sand washed T-shirts, knitted blends of noil with cotton, linen, acrylic, tencel are some of the innovations in Western Europe and North America.

The export of knitted goods to European Unions for item 156 and 157 from 1993 to 1996 is increased by 133% and 474% respectively. Substantial imports of silk garments into Germany are for re-export to France and Italy. Knitted silk products are preferred to woven.

Consumption of silk and silk goods in Japan, which is the worlds largest consumer of silk, has declined from 30,000 tons per annum to 22,100 tons. The declining trend in consumption of textile fibres (both natural and man made) for clothing and house hold can be seen year by year. Imports of manufactured silk goods have been largely in Western-Style apparel (9,029 tonnes) rather than Japanese style (1,087 tonnes). These chiefly comprised of womens outer wear(4,541 tonnes), which accounts to 45% of the total imports of silk manufactured goods (10,140 tonnes) followed by mens outer wear(1,554 tonnes), knitted products (1,212 tonnes) and neckties(312 tons). China with 68% and Korea with 19% supplied bulk of silk knit wear to Japan. Women cornered 90% of imported silk knit wears. Sweaters and womens T-shirts dominate this category. Indians contribution in Japan market is only 5% particularly in silk blouses.

With the preference for Western style clothing by Japanese consumers, the demand for Japanese style clothing will continue to decline.

Future Trends In Silk

The trade believes this is the trend for the future in several European markets.
This survey clearly highlight the demand for silk knitted fabrics.

Germany

Survey conducted ITC in Germany states that consumers preference in garment to shift to more elegant products using quality fabrics. Knitted silk products seems to be in demand with the easy care qualities of these products giving them an advantage over woven silks goods.

Italy

Knitted goods have been especially important to Italys production and export trade. It has always been at the forefront of new trends in the use of silk and silk blends in knitted goods.

Nordic Countries

Almost all the Nordic markets are interested with development of silk blends with cotton, linen and other fibres. Blends, both woven and knitted, are also popular for the complete range of garments.

United Kingdom

Silk noil is popular in United Kingdom. It is blended with fibres such as cotton, linen and wool for use in the production of knitted goods.

Japan

Manufactured silk goods are new being sold by Japanese supermarkets and mail - order houses. Knitted silk products have a small market share.

U S A

USA is among the world leaders in silk consumption, with imports valued at well above $ 2 billion. The large majority of these imports original from China and Hong Kong (China), which together supply more than 70% of the total, followed by Italy (12%), India (4%) and the Republic of Korea.

Womens and mens apparel make up about 90% of the countrys imports of silk goods. The share of womens apparel in total imports of silk apparel is around 70%. the value of silk goods imported in to the United States for home furnishing purpose is between $200 million to $250 million.

In the apparel sector, American consumers are constantly being offered new types of silk fabrics, imported to a large extent from Italy and China. Some of the latest silk fabrics
Knitted silk : There is traditionally and strong demand for knitted items in many product categories, such as T-shirt, Sweaters, Skirts and Jackets. Silk is also blended with lycra for stretch, as well as the luxury fibres such as linen or Cashmere

The increasing number of working women in the United states have created a strong progress to easy - care products.

Trade sources indicate that the relaxation of the dress code in the United States is boosting the development of smart casual apparel for office wear.

China

China silk export is 2.1 billion US dollars in 1996. As reported in the 1995 survey, the share of value - added products in Chinas silk export trade has expanded form 23% in 1986 to 74% in 1993. Intense production and design development of new value added silk products such as sand-washed silk garments, knitted silk goods. The leading foreign buyers played a major role in the evolution.

Among Chinas successful new products are knitted goods, particularly silk sweaters made of noil silk, often blended with other textile fibres such as cotton linen and ramie.

India

India has the distinction of being the only country in the world to produce all the commercially known varieties of silk mulberry, tasar, eri and muga.

Total demand of raw silk in India is 22,000 tons.
Domestic production 13,000 - 14,000 tons
Import 7,000 - 8,000 tons

75% to 80% of the total raw silk is consumed in domestic market.

About Knitting Machineries

Knitted garments today mean comfort to the consumer, versatility to the manufacture and better unit price realisation to the exporter. As the clothiers and fashion-conscious consumers are today turning towards clothing for better expression of the changes in trends and tastes. Knitting seems to be slowly gaining a stronger foothold in the market.

Though export of woven garments is well ahead of knitted garments, the latter is slowly and steadily picking up speed. In 1993-94, India exported woven garments worth Rs.8039.04 crore and the knitted garments export was worth Rs.3385.63 crore. This has risen to Rs.11.494.61 crore for woven garments and to Rs.5234.64 crore for knitted garments by 1996-97. This shows the faster pace at which knitted garment export has grown over the year, and is an endorsement of the growing importance of knitted garments in the world markets. India too is being exposed to these changing trends, and thousands of knitted garment units spread over country, particularly in Tirupur in South and Ludhiana in North are testimony to the ever-increasing popularity of knitted garments.

The existing knitting facilities can be fully utilised to develop the silk knitted fabrics.

About Dyeing Machineries

The knitwear industry at present is one of the fastest growing segments in textiles. Just as the consumer demand for knitted goods increasing, so too are the developments in manufacturing and processing techniques for knits coming up. Although the future of this industry holds a rich promise, adaptability to technological advancements is imperative for the industrys sustenance.

The share of knitwear exports in the total apparel exports from India is sizable, but its share in the world market trade is well below 1%. This shows the huge size of world market not properly tapped by the Indian knitwear exporters. Major reasons for this poor statistics are lack of modernisation, lack of proper training facilities, problems in availability of raw materials and even lack of proper information about world markets.

Modernisation in knits processing points at the disappearing traditional way of processing on winches and switch-over to modern soft flow machines. Similarly, enough technical training to concerned personnel and setting up raw material banks may help in lessening the existing problem.

Besides these, it is essential to educate and inform the small exporters about the various avenues open to them in terms of non-quota items exportable to quota-countries. All these aspects, ranging from modernisation to information service if taken care of, will lead to excellent growth of knits in the country.

In India, despite urgency for modernisation, knitting industry is still a small scale or cottage business. Majorities of the units have circular machines and the adoption of new technologies has been quite slow.

Being the second largest producer of Raw silk, India is not in a position to produce silk knitted fabric for export or domestic market. We have all the facilities to develop the silk knitted fabrics also to process the material. But this industry is lacking in co-ordination between the silk and knitting industry.

The statistics given in the introduction shows that only few countries are manufacturing silk knitted fabrics. The demand for this product is increasing day by day. Having all the infrastructural facilities to manufacture silk knitted fabrics in India, due to some constraints the knitting industry could not develop this product.

Silk

Silk fibre consists of two elements, the most important of which is called silk fibroin, or inner layer. It is insoluble in boiling hot water. The outer layer of silken filament is form of a gum called sericin, which is soluble in water. These two elements are present in the fibre in the proportion of about 75 parts of fibroin to 25 % sericin.

Advantages Of Silk

The queen of fibres
Designers delight
Natural lustre
Warm in winter cool in summer
Stronger than steel
High affinity to dyes
Vibrant colours to use in every sector

Eco-Friendly Advantages Of Silk

User-friendly and environmentally sound
Composed of proteins and it is close to human skin
It can absorb up to 13% of its weight in moisture and making it extremely comfortable to wear
Few chemicals re used no insecticides

World Production Of Raw Silk (Mulberry) By Country & By Quality

Areas Of Application And Cost

Silk is a natural fibre having very good properties compare to any other fibres. Using this fibre silk knitted garments can be produced for inner and outer wear for all category of customers. The cost of the silk knitted garments will be 4 to 5 times higher than the cost of the same version of cotton garments. This is because of the initial difference in the raw material cost. By using the facilities available in the knitting and processing sector of India, silk can be diversified into knitted garments and Indian manufacture can fulfill the needs of Indian and overseas customers. The Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development and co-operation has developed the technology to manufacture the hosiery yarn and knitted fabric using Indian mulberry silk. The Institute has already signed MOU with M/S.Stallion Garments, Tirupur, Tamilnadu and M/S.Silk Creations, Varanasi to develop and market the new product for the benefit of the domestic and export market

CONCLUSIONS:

From the above discussions it is clear that there is a good demand for the silk knitted garments in domestic and export market. Being the second largest producer of silk in the world it is high time for Indian silk industry to diversity their product from the conventional varieties. The survey shows that, the buying power of Indian customer is also increased and they are looking for the new products which can be used as formal and casual wears. The existing knitting, processing and garment making machineries can be fully utilised with a minor modification and also by adopting proper process control to develop silk knitted garments using Indian silk.

About Author:

Dr HL Vijaya Kumar is the principal of Army Institute of fashion & design, Banglore, India.

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