Earlier, compact yarn was used by companies making shirt material but now hosiery units use compact yarn. It is a value-added product and in the comings years, its demand is expected to go up. It is estimated that in the next seven to eight years, about 30 percent of the yarn produced will be compact yarn.

With the demand for compact yarn increasing gradually and textile mills in the Southern region are going in for compact spinning machinery and attachments, according to industry sources.

According to Prabhu Damodaran, secretary of Indian Texpreneurs Federation, the demand for fabric made from compact yarn in increasing globally.

Tamil Nadu has 24 million spindles and this includes close to one lakh spindles with attachments for compact spinning or compact spinning machinery. A handful of spinning mills have gone in for bulk production of compact yarn too. There are domestic, European and Chinese manufacturers who supply machinery and attachments.

With slowdown and several other factors affecting textile mills in the region for the last two years, textile mills are not going in for major investments. But, those who want to produce value-added yarn do look at options such as compact yarn, double yarn, etc. They prefer to add retrofits to reduce investment costs.

When the units invest in machinery they ensure there are servicing facilities for the machinery and a demand for the product. Though it is not viable to making huge investments now, mills those want to have an edge in the market do look at value-addition.

Around 41 textile mills in this region have come together to procure compact attachment systems from China as they are able to get price advantage by placing orders for the systems jointly. The mills have placed orders for compact attachment systems jointly on a pilot basis.