In order to achieve the desired growth target of US $ 300 billion market by 2025, India will have to focus on manmade textiles, along with cotton products.
Globally, the fibre consumption is dominated by manmade fibres (MMF) with 70 per cent share, while natural fibres constitute only 30 per cent, mentions Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Chairman Sanjay Jain.
Contrary to the global trend, fibre consumption in India is skewed towards natural fibres, especially cotton. He said that the growth of cotton is limited owing to limited agricultural land availability and price volatility.
On the other side, the downstream industries in the MMF textile value chain – spinning and weaving, which is the largest employment generator in the entire value chain, are facing acute stress due to high prices of domestic staple fibre relative to what our competitors get in other countries, pointed out Rakesh Mehra, Convenor, CITI’s Sub-Committee on Man-Made Fibre & Yarn. This affects the export competitiveness of the domestic downstream MMF textile industry and also makes the industry venerable to imports of value-added MMF products.
Mehra also added that anti-dumping duties in the beginning of the textile manufacturing chain hurt the downstream industry. Currently, anti-dumping duty on PTA is Rs 4-6 per kg and on VSF (viscose staple fibre), the anti-dumping duty is Rs 12 per kg. India has huge and efficient capacities in the manufacturing of polyester staple fibre and also VSF. Moreover, it may be noted that import of manmade staple fibre in 2017-18 stood at 149 million kg, which is less than 15 per cent of the total manmade staple fibre consumption in India. Hence, Mehra suggested that the government may abstain from enhancing custom duties and levying anti-dumping duties on staple fibres. This will allow the downstream industries, along the value chain, to grow.
Similarly, Jain expressed his concerns over rising imports of manmade textiles post implementation of GST. As indicated in the table below, in the post-GST regime, the import of yarn, fabrics and garments has increased substantially.
India’s Imports of Manmade Textiles (In US $ Mn.)
Category | Jul16- Jun 17 | Jun17- Jul 18 | % change |
Fibre | 342 | 359 | 5% |
Filament | 600 | 600 | 0% |
Yarn | 149 | 237 | 60% |
Fabric | 1,129 | 1,262 | 12% |
Apparel | 164 | 212 | 29% |
Home Textile | 123 | 143 | 16% |
Other | 142 | 145 | 2% |
2,650 | 2,958 | 12% |
Data Source: CITI Analysis based of DGCI&S data