Top German textile machinery firm to share expertise with state

The sales director of the company, along with their representative in India attended the third Bengal Global Business Summit, which commenced on Friday in Kolkata.

The company proposed the Bengal investors to set up a textile spinning unit in Bengal. Currently, Bengal has no textile spinning unit and the weavers have to bring filament yarn, polyester and staple fibre from Gujarat's Surat before production of garments.

The company will arrange 85 per cent of Bank loan from German Banks with the technical expertise which would be required during the formation of a new unit. But they are seeking for the rest 15 per cent investment from Bengal investors.

"We were in that German team which met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Düsseldorf. Here in Kolkata, we've already expressed our interest to the Chief Minister and Finance Minister," said general manager - sales Debabrata Ghosh of Oerlikon, the German company which makes textile machineries.

Oerlikon barmag and Oerlikon nuemag has been there popular product in India.

Ghosh was talking on behalf of sales director Klaus Kurten, who is one of the invited guest in BGBS and a part of German trade delegation. Kurten, however, expressed his gladness to attend the summit, saying, Germans are really interested in investing in Bengal.

The company based in Germany's Remscheid, has 70 per cent market share in India. Bengal has enough land, electricity and raw materials, so the state should have its own spinning mills, Kurten said.

"We are in talks with some renowned company based in Bengal. We have requested them to invest in spinning units. A renowned chemical refinery company based in USA, is interested to set up spinning units in Bengal. They also have a good presence in Bengal's industrial scenario. But the deal is yet to be finalised. We hope they will invest in textile spilling unit. The technical expertise will be given by us," Ghosh said, adding Chinese and Japanese company are their market competitors.

"It took Rs 21 per kg to transport filament fibre from Surat to Kolkata. The textile producers in the state will defiantly not like this expense. Bengal should have a spinning unit," Ghosh added.

However, the company has invested Rs 40 crore in Gujarat to set up a service centre. "We wish to build another centre here if some spinning mill comes here. We also have strong presence in Bangladesh. We have 4-5 service centres there," Ghosh said.