Production in the Tirupur knitwear cluster has come down by 20 per cent thanks to frequent rise in yarn prices in the last six months and this has resulted in 25,000 job losses, according to Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) President A. Sakthivel.
“Since orders are booked many months in advance, the abnormal increase in yarn prices at short intervals has forced apparel manufacturers to trim production instead of executing the orders at huge losses,” Mr. Sakthivel said on Thursday.
Mr. Sakthivel, who is also the president of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), was explaining the rationale behind the decision to observe a shutdown in textile clusters across the country on November 19. He attributed the steep rise in the yarn prices to its uncontrolled exports without looking into the domestic consumption needs. Of the 629 million kilogram of yarn registered for exports this fiscal, 433 million had already been shipped, he said.
Ban export
“The Union Government should ban any further export of cotton yarn and stick to the caps fixed on cotton exports to help the industry tide over the present crisis,” he told The Hindu. He cited the example of China which had imposed a blanket ban on cotton and yarn export to protect its domestic industry.
Mr. Sakthivel came down on the spinning mills associations which had signed an agreement with TEA some months ago promising steady yarn prices for at least three months.
