Benninger strikes to be at the Forefront of Green Technology

Printing, dyeing and finishing machinery is one of the most popular product categories in ShanghaiTex 2011. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in January to August 2010, these types of products made up the country’s third most exported product category after knitting machinery, and accessories and spare parts, contributing 18.77% of the total textile machinery export value with a sum of USD204 million, an increase of 36.79% year-on-year. Seeing such a fast growing demand for printing, dyeing and finishing machinery in the market, suppliers are actively promoting their new products.

Benninger - one of the exhibitors of the printing, dyeing and finishing machinery zone of ShanghaiTex 2011 which supplies textile finishing and tire cord production machines - is expecting more strenuous demand from the textile finishing sector this year, following a challenging year of economic recovery in 2010.

"The finishing sector has a relatively moderate growth after the financial crisis compared with the other sectors, but we expect next year will be a better year than 2010, because we have got many projects from customers who want to invest. They have built up capacity in weaving; they have the fabrics and would need to finish the fabrics. That’s why we expect more customers to invest in finishing," said Mr Heinz Michel, CEO of the 150-year-old Swiss manufacturer in an interview with ATA Journal and AdasleATA.com. The company has a global presence and has expanded its activities in the important region of Asia, especially in India and China.

Benninger viewed India as its most important market and the company has a strong position in India. "It’s a demanding market but it’s a market that’s expanding not only in textile finishing, but also in other sectors like spinning and weaving. The Indians are investing heavily right now," explained Mr Michel. Similarly, India is the most active overseas country in visitor pre-registration at ShanghaiTex 2011.

"Other countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, and even some small textile industries in Europe, are also getting more important. During last year, they (these markets) were very reluctant to invest, but now I can see that they are recovering and have some ideas of how to improve the capacity," Mr Michel supplemented.

Meanwhile, Mr Michel thought that in the coming years, Chinese companies will be focusing more and more on local business. "The buying power of the Chinese is getting better and the quality of the clothes in shops located in the more sophisticated cities like Shanghai is quite high," he told ATA Journal and AdsaleATA.com. "China knows how to produce good quality products, and the clothes in retail shops are not so cheap nowadays compared with 10 years ago. Our customers in China are supplying to a wide market range and they are looking for high-end machines from them."

Benninger has invested time and money in different areas of its textile finishing machines to improve the flexibility of machine concepts as well as the efficiency of main components. Furthermore, it increased the engineering capacity and efforts in the knit line to fulfil the fast growing demands for open width knit finishing ranges. With a focus in lowering energy, water and chemical consumption, Benninger wants to be at the forefront of the green technology and at ShanghaiTex, they will present Kusters DyePad produced in China mainly for the domestic and Asian market.

In addition to Benninger, visitors to ShanghaiTex 2011 can also find Hong Kong’s Fong’s and Gofront, Germany’s Thies, Denmark’s Danfoss, Italy’s Brazzoli, Korea’s IL Sung, etc. in the Printing, Dyeing & Finishing Machinery & Textile Chemicals Zone. Online registration for ShanghaiTex 2011 is now open for visitors.