Suffering due to the acute shortage of viscose staple fibre (VSF) and extra long staple (ELS) cotton, the Indian textiles and apparel industry has urged for immediate support from the Central Government in this regard.
Ashwin Chandran, Chairman, The Southern Indian Mills’ Association (SIMA), has also urged for immediate intervention of the Prime Minister in the matter regarding removal of both anti-dumping duty on VSF and also the withdrawal of 10 per cent import duty on cotton.
Both are high value-added market segments that account to around Rs. 1,50,000 crore business size and employ over two million people, fetch GST revenue of Rs. 5,000 crore and forex earnings to the tune of Rs. 75,000 crore apart from catering to the value-added segments.
It is pertinent to mention here that the industry has been pleading to the Government to remove anti-dumping duty of US $ 0.103 to 0. 512 per kg imposed on the VSF during the last several years, which is under active consideration.
“VSF and superfine cotton value chain supplies to the international brands, who have set up retails in the domestic market and the price crisis is being utilised as an opportunity by the neighboring countries like Bangladesh and, therefore, imports have started looming large,” he said.
It is also pertinent to mention here that out of 40 MMF products identified by the Ministry of Textiles under PLI Scheme, 18 products are made out of VSF and its blended fibers.
The capacity utilisation of the spinning and power loom clusters in Erode alone has been affected to the tune of 30 per cent and, therefore, the industry cannot wait till the sunset review and needs withdrawal of the anti-dumping duty immediately.
Source: Apparel Online
Indian technical textiles market is expected to grow at a rapid 7.6 per cent in the Asia Pacific region to reach $23.3 billion in 2027, up from $14 billion in 2020, supported by increasing awareness about the products, higher disposable incomes, changing consumer trends besides some sector-specific growth drivers.
Numerous factors such as developing end-user sectors, rising awareness, government initiatives, regulations, standardisations, technology upgradation among others are expected to drive considerable growth of domestic technical textiles in coming years, says a report by KPMG-FICCI.
The domestic technical textile market for synthetic polymer was valued at $7.1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 7.2 per cent, while technical textile market for wovens is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4 per cent to $15.7 billion by 2027, up from $9.5 billion in 2020.
Industrial segment
Technical textile market for MobilTech (automotive textiles) is expected to grow to $3.7 billion by 2027 from $2.4 billion in 2020. Similarly, the market for InduTech (industrial textiles) would grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent from $2 billion in 2020 to reach $3.3 billion by 2027.
Some of the key strengths of Indian technical textile industry include strong value chain, large domestic market, and availability of skilled people, government support and the ability to scale up in quick time (this was proved in medical textile segment during Covid-19 period when demand for PPEs boomed).
Several government initiatives are supporting the growth of the segment. National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM), from 2020-21 and 2023-24 at an outlay of ₹1,480 crore is expected to help Indian players compete with international players.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in textiles sector with focus on MMF segment and technical textiles, will augment scale/capacities in technical textiles sector.
Also, the proposal to set up seven mega investment textiles parks over the next three years to give domestic manufacturers a level-playing field in the international textiles market.
Import dependence
During 2014-15 to 2019-20, India’s exports grew at a 0.9 per cent CAGR, whereas imports increased at 4.3 per cent. Import substitution through favourable policies would help growth of these high-growth segments and ensure value retention within the economy and new skilled employment opportunities for Indian youth, it said.
The report highlights that the technical textiles industry infrastructure in India predominantly focuses on low-value commodity products such as bags and sacks under basic non-wovens. Other industrial countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan focus on high-value products (bullet proof, fire retardant products) and segments.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
After Tirupur, now Erode-based textile firms went on strike against high yarn price as over 3,000 textile traders closed their organisations for a day.
Notably, members of Erode Cloth Merchants’ Associations downed their shutters for a day. Here it is important to mention that after Coimbatore and Tirupur, Erode is also a leading textile hub of Tamil Nadu.
Just few days back, Tirupur’s apparel industry had also gone on a day-long strike over the same issue.
Textile-dominated markets of the city like Kongalamman Kovil Street and Eswaran Kovil Street remained completely shut.
K. Kalaiselvan, President of the association said, “The price of yarn is on the upward trend for many months now as we are unable to sell our products. This closure for the day resulted in loss of business transactions to the tune of Rs. 50 crore and affected over 40,000 daily earners and workers, including loadmen and vehicle drivers.”
Traders of the city have urged Union and State Governments to intervene and regulate the yarn price and also fix the price once or twice in a month.
Due to everyday changing price of yarn, traders have been unable to take orders from customers.
It is pertinent to mention here that the issue of high yarn price is a nationwide problem and just few days back trade bodies had also come together with a helpline for the same.
Source: Apparel Online
To encourage integrated and sustainable development of handlooms, crafts and tourism, the Textile Ministry has started work on the construction of craft handloom villages on important tourist circuits across Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Kerala.
Showcasing products
“Craft handloom villages will be able to offer traditional hand-woven products to the consumers and tourists by inspiring knowledge about authentic weaving technique through ‘hands on’ experience,” according to a note prepared by the Ministry of Textiles.
At present construction work is going on for the crafts handloom villages at Mohapara (Assam), Kullu (Himachal Pradesh), Srinagar (J&K), Kollam (Kerala) and Rampur, Bodhgaya (Bihar).
“These craft villages are to be set up with the cooperation from the respective State governments,” the note said. The on-going exercise is in line with the announcement made by Textile Minister Smriti Irani last year of the government’s intention to develop ten craft and handloom villages so that handloom products are not limited to clothes or home furnishing alone. “More craft villages will subsequently be set up,” an official said.
The idea is to have tourists visit these handloom villages to not only learn about the weavers but also contribute to Aatmanirbhar Bharat by buying more of these items.
Design Centres
To help weavers, exporters, manufacturers and designers to create new designs in step with global demand, the Textile Ministry is setting up Design Resource Centres. A DRC is to come up in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, while seven others have already been set up at Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Varanasi, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar and Mumbai.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
One of India’s largest home textile manufacturer, Indo Count Industries has announced massive expansion plans!
The company has planned expansion of its bed linen capacity by about 20 per cent from its existing annual capacity of 90 million metres by debottlenecking and balancing its facilities.
The Mumbai-based company also proposes to make a brownfield investment for adding commensurate cut & sew facilities and for enhancing the capacity for Top of the Bed (TOB) products. This will entail a capex of about Rs. 150 crore.
Notably, the total capex will be about Rs. 200 crore and will be funded by a mix of internal accruals and debt and is expected to be operational in H2 of FY 2022.
Apart from this, the company is also focusing on modernisation with the existing spinning unit of the company to be modernised with compact spinning technology. This will entail a capex of about Rs. 50 crore.
Post modernisation, this capacity will also be used for captive consumption in the home textiles unit.
These investments are expected to increase the revenue by about Rs. 600 crore over the next 2 years, post commissioning.
Anil Kumar Jain, Executive Chairman of the company said, the investment in modernisation and technological upgradation will further enhance the company’s product offering capabilities to customers and grow the market share of the company in bedding products category.
Source: Apparel Online
Higher global demand, especially for engineering goods, chemicals and low-value lifestyle products such as carpets, has made Indian exporters’ order books improve by almost 40% compared to the pre-Covid-19 period, with handicrafts, ceramic products and cotton yarn/fabrics showing signs of further strengthening amid a drop in new cases in the United States and despite another wave of infections in the European Union.
“Our exporters’ order books have improved by almost 40% compared to the pre-Covid-19 period,” said Ajay Sahai, director-general, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
Attributing the increase to global demand for plastics, chemicals, engineering goods and low-value lifestyle products such as machine made carpets and non-leather footwear, Sahai said labour-intensive sectors such as handicrafts, ceramic products and cotton yarn/fabrics too are showing signs of further strengthening.
“There is a gradual recovery in global trade which will have a positive impact on the export sector in India," said Engineering Exports Promotion Council of India chairman Mahesh Desai. Demand for Indian engineering items from China, Singapore, Germany and Thailand has seen high double-digit growth, led by exports of iron and steel, and non-ferrous metals like copper, besides auto components, he said.
The handicraft sector expects an export growth of about 30% in the ongoing quarter and outbound shipments could end up reaching the same level as in 2019-20, according to the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH).
“The order book is agreeable but there is a 25-27% rise in prices of raw materials such as wood and metals, and labour costs,” said EPCH executive director Rakesh Kumar. Business in the ongoing quarter may reach the same level as the corresponding quarter of 2019, led by furniture, home and lifestyle products while fashion jewellery segment has yet to see a pickup, he said.
Kumar said no new products could be launched in 2020. “The orders are 70% of what used to be in the pre-pandemic times,” said Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman of Chennai-based Farida Group, one of India's largest shoe manufacturers and exporters, which is a vendor to overseas firms such as Adidas, Clarks, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and Bally Shoes.
Ahmed said though there is demand from the US because of flattening of Covid-19 cases, the average order size has declined to 40-60,000 pairs of shoes in a season from 50-70,000 pairs earlier.
Leather exports from India shrank 32.16% year-on-year in the April 2020-February 2021 period while handicrafts contracted 8.49%.
Unlike the pre-Covid era, when orders would come months in advance, orders now come in at a short period of time and need to be fulfilled faster, making it difficult to plan the business, said exporters. Moreover, buyers are ordering minimum quantities of goods to avoid getting stuck with inventory, they said.
India’s exports between April 2020 and February 2021 amounted to $256.18 billion, down 12.23% year-on-year.
FIEO expects India’s exports to touch $285-290 billion in 2020-21, lower than $314.3 billion in the previous fiscal.
“The UK, EU and China are disturbed because of the pandemic and the order book has been impacted because of that. We expect our exports to decline 20-25% by the end of March,” said Siddh Nath Singh, chairman, Carpet Export Promotion Council.
Carpet exports rose 3.16% year-on-year in the first eleven months of this fiscal. As per FIEO, rising exports from China has led to the shortage of containers in the region as most of the empty containers are available only for exports from China.
That’s because the shipping lines and container companies are being paid hefty premiums for bringing empty containers back to China, it said.
Source: The Economic Times
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world market has huge turbulence. But amid this severe reality, the medical mask market made a silver lining for apparel manufacturing countries, especially Bangladesh. In the first 11 months of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, exports of face masks from Bangladesh grew significantly. Greatly contributing to the diversification of the country’s economy.
According to the Trade Data Monitor (TDM) – one of the world’s leading sources of business statistics – said that Bangladesh exported US$95.9 million worth of medical masks during the period between January and November of the previous year.
The statistic shows that global masks market was worth $65 billion and China leading the global market with more than 80 percent market share.
During that period, in the USA, Bangladesh exported US$40 million worth of masks. Mostly surgical, KN95, N-95 masks. Moreover, the exports of the Bangladeshi products to the US accounted for over 41 percent of the whole shipment.
Germany came to be the 2nd importing country (According to TDM) by exporting US$12.8 million worth of masks. Which accounted for 13.35 percent of the whole shipment.
Canada stood in 3rd with $7.7 million in export during the 11 months. With 7.95% of the export share.
The further importing countries of the product from Bangladesh are France ($7.5 million), Poland ($4.7 million), UK ($4.4 million), China ($2.5 million), Belgium ($1.7 million), Australia ($1.6 million), Netherlands ($1.4 million), and others ($11.7 million),
The CEO of Geneva-based TDM Don Brasher informed that Bangladesh’s textile sector is working extremely hard to fulfill the world’s masks, gowns and further fundamental commodities demand to cope up with the financial devastation resulted in by the COVID-19, which has also diversified the country’s export economy.
While Bangladesh’s RMG sector was struck badly during the lockdown in April and May in 2020. Being the world’s second-largest apparel exporter it the country was. However, export orders of such products not only helped to diversify the export basket but also aided to raise its across-the-board shipments during the endless ongoing pandemic.
A Bangladeshi mask exporting company said Bangladesh has a long legacy of manufacturing numerous categories of clothing. Amid the pandemic, the Bangladesh apparel industry quickly rose to the challenge and started exporting technical products like masks, PPE, gowns, gloves, etc.
Not to mention, during the pandemic, the majority of the apparel factories were shut down, brands and buyers stopped payment or canceled orders. Despite these obstacles, the apparel sector manufactured these essential lifesaving products.
Source: Textile Today
China's economy is continuing a steady recovery this year, vice premier Han Zheng said on Sunday.
Han made the remarks to the China Development Forum, a high-level business gathering hosted by the Development Research Centre of the State Council.
Han also said China, the world's No.2 economy, will strengthen macro policy coordination with other countries.
China's economy is widely expected to grow more than 8% in 2021, led by an expected double-digit expansion in the first quarter, but analysts say the pace is driven by a low base for comparison and the recovery remains uneven.
The economy expanded 2.3% last year, the only major economy to report growth, although the growth was its weakest in 44 years.
Source: The Business Standard
