The tour was organised by Qingdao Haijia machinery Ltd and it was coordinated by their Surat representative Sandeep Kedia of Janki Tara group.

The Indian delegation of 45 entrepreneurs are manufacturing Home textile, Technical textile and high fashion ladies garment fabric.

They visited the airjet weaving factory and waterjet weaving factory. 

The entrepreneurs learned that 1000 waterjet and airjet weaving machines were functioning under one roof.

“One operator was handling 24 machines. The salary of one operator was Rs 1.25 lakh per month. The power cost is almost the same as in India. But their production efficiency was minimum 95 per cent and here in India is maximum 85 per cent,” said Ashish Gujarati, President of Pandesara Weavers Co-op Society. 

He observed that Chinese work culture is to produce export oriented fabric, even for the local consumption. 

“The rate of interest is lower than in India. Also the raw material cost is lower than India. Qingdao Haijia machinery Ltd has invested 600 crore in fully automatic robotics plants to manufacture weaving machines,” he said.

This plant was installed by Siemens Germany. They produce 16000 machines per year. This plant is operated by only 20 workers. Earlier in the semi-automatic plant 300 workers were required.

The President of Pandesara Weavers Co-op Society Ltd informed that all the textile industry stakeholders and textile association togather should arrange a detailed study tour and prepare a GAP analysis report. 

The experts and joint secretary from textile ministry should be part of this study tour. 

“Surat textile industry has a potential to compete with China and achieve the production efficiency of more than 95 per cent and to produce export oriented textile,” he added.