‘Textile industry must look at new areas to scale up’

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July 23, 2015 Coimbatore, July 22:

The Indian textile industry will need to introspect and look into areas where there is scope for scaling up and upgrading the fabrics sector. The industry’s long-term prospects “are undoubtedly bright”, Prem Malik, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry said here on Wednesday.

Inaugurating the Natural Fibre Conclave at Hotel Le Meridien at Chinniampalayam in Coimbatore, Malik said the textiles industry in China was slowing down and Pakistan’s growth - constrained by power and other problems and the garment industry’s growth in Bangladesh – is expected to reach a saturation point sooner than later. Diversion of garment orders to India has already begun. “There is therefore a need to scale up and upgrade our fabrics industry,” he reiterated.

The CITI Chairman also stressed the need for enhancing the yarn consuming capacities within the country, admitting that external issues such as a slowdown in the EU and policy jolts from China could have an adverse impact. “But there are more crucial issues such as infrastructural infirmities, transaction costs — which are way above our competing countries — inordinate delays in getting duty refunds, high cost of export credit and many more,” he said.

Policy intervention

The most important policy intervention required at present is making TUF effective. The scheme has no funds available for new investments and the budget allocation is not enough even to cover the backlog of the last fiscal in full, he said.

Reverting to the fibre scenario, he said, “While India’s cotton production exceeds consumption, we continue to import cotton because of deficit in certain slots, especially the extra long staple cotton. We also face supply shortage of short staple cotton as there is little presence of BT technology in this segment.”

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