Textile accessories, spares expo in Coimbatore focuses on technology

Texfair 2026 in Coimbatore showcases textile technology and automation, addressing industry challenges and future growth opportunities.

The 15th edition of Texfair, an exhibition of textile machinery, spares, and accessories took off in Coimbatore on Friday with focus on automation and technology.

Chairman of Ramco Group P.R. Venketrama Raja, who inaugurated the exhibition, said the four-day event is important as it showcases technologies that are available to bring down costs. In the last few years, the tetxile mills faced demand volatility, margin pressure, and a constant need for investments. In the coming decade, the mills should focus on speed and responsiveness, quality and consistency, sustainable production, operation efficiency, and productivity, he said.

The Indian textile and apparel sector is targeting $ 350 billion topline annual revenue by 2030 and this needs sustained investments in advance machinery, digitisation, automation, and smart manufacturing systems, said Ashwin Chandran, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry. “Sustainability is a defining trend.” It is essential for long term business and involves costs. Businesses should look at it as long term investment, he added.

Shaleen Toshniwal, chairman of Manmade and Technical Textile Export Promotion Council, said that 70 % of global textile business is in the manmade fibre sector as it gives comfort to the users and performance. India has a vertically integrated textile industry. Technical textiles that uses MMF also has multiple applications. The technical textile industry in India is expected to grow to $ 50 billion by 2030. “All these years, market access was a challenge as we did not have a level playing field.” The Indian industry should focus on modernisation, innovation, and sustainability. The Council is working with the Tamil Nadu government to develop the MMF sector here, he said.

Joint Managing Director of Wazir Advisors Prashant Agarwal spoke on the benefits of the India’s free trade agreements with the UK and the European Union. The buyers in these countries are looking at alternatives to China and the Indian companies should offer scale and automation.

Suresh Babuji, Director of MSME Development and Facilitation Office, said the Central government is setting up a tool centre in Coimbatore on 14 acres and it will be helpful for the MSMEs in the engineering sector. This centre will be operational in two years. The existing centre of the MSME Development and Facilitation Office in Coimbatore offers testing for pumps and motors and BIS standards.