Surat: Textile entrepreneurs in the country's largest man-made fabrics (MMF) hub are looking to emulate their counterparts of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, by manufacturing knitwear fabrics and garments.Thanks to efforts of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), a couple of leading knitwear manufacturers in Tirupur have expressed interest in establishing units through joint ventures with the city's textile entrepreneurs.A team of two experts from SGCCI have been tasked with carrying out a detailed study of the Tirupur knitwear hub, which accounts for 90% of the country's knit-wear exports. The experts will submit their report to SGCCI next week.Tirupur has over 6,000 sophisticated textile units including circular knitting units and textile process houses, using state-of-the-art technology imported from Taiwan. Installed capacity is 20,000 machines, manufacturing over three crore metres of fabric per day with and an annual export turnover of Rs 25,000 crore.A delegation of SGCCI led by president B S Agarwal visited Tirupur to understand their success story and emulate their knitted-wear manufacturing in Surat."Demand for knitted cotton fabrics is increasing from western countries like Europe and the US. Manufacturers in Tirupur are looking at extending their units and entrepreneurs here can serve them better," said SGCCI president, B S Agarwal.Agarwal added, "The entire industry in Tirupur uses spun yarn and our industry uses filament yarn. There is a need to enter the spun yarn category and start manufacturing knitted fabrics, which are in high demand in the world. This way, entrepreneurs will be able to increase their fabric exports."SGCCI is planning to hold a seminar to educate textile entrepreneurs on seizing the opportunity from Tirupur.Dinesh Zaveri, a textile industry expert, said: "Circular knitting is the most sophisticated method of producing high-quality knitted fabrics. The machines cost between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore. In a small 15x15 feet area, the machine can produce over 1,500m of cloth per day. It is a golden opportunity for textile entrepreneurs here to enter joint ventures and start manufacturing knitted-wear fabric."He added, "Knitted fabrics are used in to make vests, undergarments, sandos, socks etc."

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