Domestic technical textiles Industry Segment-wise consumption of ...

The market of fire retardant apparels is primarily driven by increased awareness, international level of
safety standard in industrial workplace and mandatory safety norms for protection of workers. The
fire retardant apparels are generally used in:
1. Iron and steel industry-some of the big steel producers such as Tata Steel, Steel Authority of
India Ltd, Ispat Industries and Essar Steel are making significantly higher investments in this
area.
2. Welding industry
3. Oil Refineries
Large Heavy Industry establishments such as SAIL require around 10000 pieces per annum on an
average. Defence establishments require around 2 lakh pieces of fire retardant apparels.
The manufacturers of fire retardant apparels in India generally tend to export a major part of their
production (two-third or more). The awareness level being low only leading heavy industries follow
necessary safety standards. With increasing emphasis on safety standards fire retardant apparel
industry is expected to grow at around 8% per annum.
Key manufacturers of fire retardant apparels
Ordinance Factory Board manufactures the FR apparels for defence usage in India. For fire retardant
fabrics, inherently flame retardant fabrics are used for clothing (while chemical coatings are used for
tents). The other key manufacturers of fire retardant apparels are given below:
Company Capacity Production Units
Tara Lohia Pvt. Limited 2.5-3 2.5-3 Lakh pieces per annum
Mallcom India Limited 6 1-2 Lakh pieces per annum
Chandramukhi Impex - 0.1-0.15 Lakh pieces per annum
Modern Apparels - 0.1 Lakh pieces per annum
In addition to these key players there is large number of small producers of fire retardant apparels
however the quality and standards followed by these units is usually suspect. Several manufacturers
like Kusumgar Corporates supply fire retardant fabrics for defence purposes.
Market size of and future forecast
The market for fire retardant apparels is driven by demand from few big players in refining, iron and
steel and other heavy engineering companies. The price of good quality fire retardant apparel