Textile Buyers Set Sights On India.

KOLKATA: With the Chinese textile and apparel sector grappling with high inflation and ascending labour costs, American importers are making a beeline for India. Sales enquiries are up 15%, raising hopes of India eating into Chinese market share. China accounts for almost a third of global clothing trade. India, on the other hand, has a 4% share.

DK Nair, secretary general of industry body Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said that over a period of time China will lose its edge in exports. "Pollution created by processing industries has emerged as a major problem in the textile industry of China. In fact, Indian textile exports to USA has grown at a faster rate in 2010 compared to
China," he added.

Even the European apparel market has turned towards India. There has been up to 15% increase in order-booking position from EU countries. "These global apparel importers are gradually shifting from China and placing orders with India. They are putting orders for T-shirts, woven shirts and ladies dresses," said Premal Udani, chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council. A senior official of a Bangalore-based textile export firm said: "Basically three things are happening in China.

One, labour costs have increased. Two, raw material costs are also increasing and the last, their currency is becoming slightly more marketable." "As a result of all this, the overall costs are increasing and sometimes deliveries are becoming a problem. Which is why global buyers are looking at alternatives like India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka," he added.

Nair believes other important factors include stricter trade union laws, power outages and high cotton prices. "All these will make China less competitive in the long run, which will turn in favour of India. However, it will not happen instantly. It will take at least 10 years for Indian textile industry to capture a sizeable portion of China's global marketshare," he said.

It will be a long-drawn out process for India. "It will be a slow process as global buyers will test out the Indian suppliers in terms of quality first before putting orders. But there is obviously an opportunity for us to grab," said another industry official.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com