September 14 at The Chamber of Commerce and Industry will hold a meeting of the Council for Industrial Development and Competitiveness of the Russian economy. The meeting will be attended by the heads of Russia's largest light industry enterprises, representatives of state authorities, leading experts and analysts. In the discussion of the main topic "How to overcome the factors of stagnation and realize the potential of the light industry?" the domestic developer and manufacturer of nonwovens "Thermopol" will propose how to intensify the development of technical textiles in the country as actively as possible.

Among the crisis issues for discussion in the CCI of the Russian Federation, the following problems were made:

1. raw material base: how to reconfigure the economy so that not imported, but domestic raw materials are produced from Russian petrochemicals?
2. modernization: why is the transition to high-tech equipment unavailable for business and uninteresting for the state today?
3. tax burden: how does the increase in taxes and the tightening of tax audits affect business?
4. unfair competition: how is the fight against gray imports in the industry and the protection of the national producer carried out? what kind of protection does the industry need?
5. strategic planning: what parameters should be included in the budget for 2019 and the planning period for 2020–2021 in order to ensure a faster pace of industrial development?

The company "Thermopol", a manufacturer of nonwovens Holofiber for various purposes, notes the low demand for high-tech developments in the field of technical textiles in Russia, especially against the background of European and Chinese companies, where such developments are given great attention. At the same time, it is important to take into account expert forecasts: the technical textile market will continue to grow, and the structure of the textile industry will change after it. The demand for technical textiles from various industries is growing; the areas of its application are expanding; not only the demand for existing goods is growing: new technologies, materials are being invented, new types of products from them are being developed. Similar processes are already actively underway in foreign markets, and the more noticeable is the lag in Russian industry.

The main prerequisites for the development of the industry:

• world population growth;
• transition to new technologies for the production of clothing;
• the appearance of new building materials;
• the rising cost of housing construction;
• the emergence of more complex industrial production technologies;
• expanding healthcare;
• car production growth;
• the growth of spending on sports and tourist goods;
• constant expansion of the application areas of these products.

The development of the production of technical textiles is taking place against the background of a decline in the production of traditional and natural raw materials (flax, wool, natural-based yarns), a decrease in their quality and a deterioration in the assortment. Butter adds to the fire the depreciation of funds, technological lag, lack of proactivity, direct copying of technologies, etc. It can be assumed that the main developments will be copied by domestic companies, but the products they have created increasingly involve the use of technical textiles, in particular nonwovens, and an increase in their share in industrial production.

Currently, the technical textile market is significantly fragmented in terms of applications and technologies. In accordance with the international classification, at least 10 main areas of application are allocated (for example, according to the classification of Michael Jaenecke):

• Protech – textiles with special protective properties;
• Clothech –functional textiles for clothing –waterproof fabric, linings, insulation fabric;
• Sportech – textile materials for sports applications;
• Hometech – textile components for the production of household goods;
• Meditech – textiles for medical clothing, hygiene products, for prostheses, implants, surgical accessories;
• Mobiltech –textiles for vehicles – for interior upholstery, seat belts, airbags, cord threads, fabrics for belts, hoses and filters;
• Indutech – textile base for conveyor belts and drive belts, materials for cigarette and industrial filters, fiberglass for electronic boards;
• Packtech – textiles used for industrial and household packaging;
• Buildtech; insulating textile materials, floor and wall coverings, building membranes and meshes;
• Geotech – membranes, meshes, mats, non-woven materials for landscaping;
• Agrotech – materials for agriculture – for sheltering plants, nets for the ground, capillary fabrics, fishing nets, etc.

The Government of the Russian Federation provides for the creation of conditions for the long-term development and formation of competitive advantages of Russian companies – market participants both in the domestic market and in the world market of light industry goods. However, the issue of systemic intensification of the development of technical textiles in Russia continues to be extremely problematic.

Photo: "Thermal floor"