DGCIS Says Apparel Exports rose 30% in H1, Exporters Differ.

KOLKATA: Despite the impending fears of another global recession, apparel exports from India in the April-September 2011 period have grown by 30% to $6.7 billion, says the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), which comes under the Ministry of Commerce.

However, exporters said the number may be grossly exaggerated and have requested the government to re-examine data. Exporters are particularly peeved with the data for export to the US, the main market, where sales have slowed considerably.

Premal Udani, chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, said: "The DGCIS figure has surprised us as well. We have requested the government to review the figure. The picture is not so rosy as the figure states. For the whole FY12, exports are expected to be up by 10-20%. The health of the apparel industry is not so well. International buyers are picking up less volumes."

According to reports, India has the world's largest number of looms -- India has 1.80 million weaving looms (accounting for 45% of global total), 200,000 sets of shuttle-less looms (3% of world total). India has the second largest number of spindles in the world, accounting for 23% of the world total.

A Sakthivel, president of Tirupur Exporters' Association, said: "In the knitwear category, there has been no growth in the last few months. Tirupur has been severely affected by the Euro zone crisis. European buyers have cancelled orders.

Some of them have even told the exporters to hold the goods meant for shipment. Though the US offtake is slow, the situation is better than Europe." Tirupur exports knitwear products worth Rs 12,000 crore every year. There are 700 exporting units in the region.

The situation is so grim that Tirupur textile units have approached the commerce and textile ministries with a proposal to restructure their loans and give them a moratorium of one year to tide over the crisis. "The proposal is under consideration of the government. Commerce minister Anand Sharma has told us that the matter will be taken up with the finance ministry," Sakthivel added.

A Ludhiana-based exporter said although orders from the US are coming, buyers are looking for cheap products. "There is competition from China and Bangladesh which is affecting our offtake as well in this recessionary environment."

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com