Practical session “
Influence of innovative fabrics and high-tech materials on consumer preferences in casual wear“, held on
August 28 within the framework of the Business Program of the 5th International exhibition “INTERFABRIC-2018.Autumn” revealed the main interrelated trends in this area. First of all, this is a high demand for the mentioned materials in the domestic market. Which, however, can “shrink” in the coming years in view of sectoral, cross-sectoral and intra- and external economic factors.
As a consequence, the growth of production of domestic products of such a profile, which has been outlined in the last
5 years, risks to stagnate. Especially in conditions of falling solvent demand of consumers, including on the part of processors.
In addition, almost 100% of this segment’s dependence on imported equipment and technologies hinders the development of a full-fledged import substitution along the innovative commodity-technological chain. And the volatility of the exchange rate, which is intensifying in the last months of this year, also makes it difficult to implement major long-term projects in this area.
Estimates of this kind were expressed by
Nadezhda Kornilova, general director of
Engineering Center for Textile and Light Industry LLC (moderator of the session),
Vladislav Ivanov, development director of
Thermopol, Andrei Zharinov, head of
Karosport,
Anna Zhulikova, head of fabrics for
Fabreex and
Sergey Blinov, representative of
PIL Membranes (Great Britain).
Yevgeny Kreuzberg, general director of
Knitting Factory LLC (Yaroslavl), agreeing with the above assessments, underscored the growing importance of R & D in the sector of innovative fabrics and related products, as well as the “speed” of the introduction of appropriate developments in batch production. For what is considered the newest innovation today, tomorrow can become obsolete. Since scientific and technological progress is not a static category in the textile industry.
In a more detailed interpretation, the indicated trends and assessments were expressed by
Vladislav Ivanov (“Thermopol”). We remind that this company is the leader in terms of production volumes and qualitative parameters of non-woven materials in Russia. Used in many sub-sectors of the light industry and in other industries.
The Russian factory of non-woven materials
“Thermopol” exists since 2004. Its production facilities are represented by Austrian and German equipment. The factory owns
TM Hollowfiber®.
April 2 of this year the project “Plants of non-woven materials”
Thermopol-Moscow “celebrated its
14th anniversary. At the same time, the
Hollowfiber trademark was extended until 2028 inclusive.
According to
Vladislav Ivanov, in view of many reasons, mainly financial, economic and technological, the pace of development of innovative segments of the Russian light industry still lags behind the pace in this sector of industrial and many developing countries. First of all, due to technological dependence on imports, which, among other things, makes it difficult to timely update the assortment of Russian innovative production of light industry. According to the expert, such factor as a limited assortment of solvent demand for such products in Russia is also affected, in comparison with “Western” and many other countries. And the combination of these factors leads, at least, to preserving the “gap” between the innovative dynamics of the light industry in Russia and many foreign countries. Again, technological import-dependence in these matters plays no small role, but this dependence, for obvious reasons, is not recoverable in a short time.
Taking into account the identified and related factors, Ivanov and other experts-participants in the session called for closer cooperation of manufacturers of innovative fabrics, raw materials for their production and R & D – in order to increase the competitiveness of the said Russian products at prices, quality and assortment.
