Thiruvananthapuram:
Trivandrum Spinning Mills Limited (
TSM), which was hit by the
lockdown induced by
Covid-19 pandemic, is on a path to revival.
It has resumed the exportation of yarn. The first batch of 19,200 kilograms of yarn to Thailand was despatched from the spinning mill at Balaramapuram on Friday. The consignment will be shipped to Thailand from Thoothukudi port in Tamil Nadu. The consignment was flagged off by spinning mill chairman M M Basheer and managing director K T Jayaraj.
MD Jayaraj said though the mill started its operations post the lockdown a few months ago, it was only catering to buyers within the country. For two months, the mill’s utilisation of machinery was only between 20 and 30%. Now, it has been increased to more than 60%, increasing the quantity of production and thereby being able to meet the demand from overseas.
“Lack of availability of sufficient raw materials is the key factor that has affected the quantity of production. The raw material used in TSM is the waste cotton sourced from all other mills in the state. Post the lockdown, the mills are yet to reach their maximum productivity and it has proportionally affected the production at TSM,” Jayaraj said.
Besides Thailand, TSM had been exporting yarn materials to China and Indonesia. Industries minister E P Jayarajan said on Friday that the LDF government had undertaken massive renovation works in TSM after coming to power, spending Rs 4.5 crore. Defunct machines were repaired and made operational again. Worn-out machine parts were replaced with new ones. An additional fund of Rs 7.5 crore was announced in the last budget. All this helped the mill in increasing its production and also improving the quality. It was following this, they started getting orders from oversees.
With Friday’s despatch, the total number of loads exported from TSM during the current LDF government’s tenure has become 44.