The textile industry is India’s dominant industry. According to the annual report of the Indian Ministry of Textiles, the textile industry accounts for 12% of India’s total annual export share. At the same time, the Indian textile industry also accounts for 5% of the global textile and apparel trade. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, India’s textile and apparel industry exports reached US$35.5 billion, making it the world’s second largest textile producer. Previously, many experts believed that with the continuous development of India’s textile industry, India is likely to replace China and become the world’s largest textile producer.
In order to achieve this goal, India also provided 60 billion rupees in aid funds in 2018 to stimulate the development of the textile industry. But under the epidemic, India obviously did not do enough.
Indian companies have lost a large number of clothing export contracts
The rapid spread of the epidemic has overwhelmed India’s medical system. The scenes of people burning corpses along rivers and streets are shocking.
Currently, more than half of the local governments in India have chosen “City lockdown” has halted production and life, and many of India’s pillar industries are also facing serious impacts.
Surat is located in the Indian state of Gujarat, and most people in the city are engaged in jobs related to the textile industry. The epidemic is approaching fiercely, and many places in India have implemented varying degrees of blockade measures. Some textile traders in Surat said that their business has dropped by almost 90%.
Indian Surat Textiles Trader Dinesh Kataria said: There are 65,000 textile traders in Surat. If calculated according to the average number, the textile industry in Surat is losing at least about US$48 million every day.
The current situation in Surat is only a microcosm of the Indian textile industry. The entire Indian textile industry is facing a rapid decline. The outbreak of the epidemic, coupled with the strong demand for clothing after the liberalization of overseas economic activities, has caused a large number of European and American textile orders to be transferred.
A sales manager of a Chinese textile company said in an interview : “Our company makes towels and bath towel textiles. Relatively speaking, in recent months, foreign orders, whether inquiries or normal orders, have been much more than in previous years. There are particularly many inquiries from India. I feel that it should be the production market in India. Can’t keep up.”
The Indian industrial system lacks supporting facilities
The Indian textile industry ranks first in the global textile industry It occupies a pivotal position in the industry and is the world’s second largest textile producer after China; India is currently the world’s largest cotton producer, the world’s largest jute producer, and the world’s second largest silk producer, with its yarn production capacity Accounting for 22% of the world. The textile and garment industry is one of the pillar industries of the Indian economy and one of India’s largest sources of foreign exchange earnings. Textile industry exports account for about 15% of India’s total export earnings. According to the annual report of the Indian Ministry of Textiles, the textile industry accounts for 2% of India’s GDP. The total number of employees in the Indian textile industry chain exceeds 100 million, making it the second largest job provider after agriculture. The epidemic has had a serious impact on the Indian economy. Under the epidemic, orders for Indian companies have dropped significantly, making survival difficult, which may directly lead to the layoff of nearly 10 million people in the Indian textile industry.
A few days ago, ZARA, a well-known international company, asked Indian textile manufacturers to modify tablecloths from pure polyester to linen. As a result, Indian textile manufacturers said that this was very difficult and would take 2 months to complete.
Since ZARA was in urgent need, they communicated with Chinese textile manufacturers. After clearly understanding the needs of customers, Chinese textile manufacturers He said that the tablecloth transformation could be completed within 7 days. In the end, ZARA transferred the orders originally delivered to Indian textile manufacturers to Chinese textile manufacturers. According to foreign media reports, because Indian textile companies cannot keep up with technology, many international buyers have transferred their orders to Chinese textile companies. This year, the number of international orders for towels and bed sheets received by Chinese textile companies has increased significantly compared with last year.
A textile company in Hebei stated that overseas orders in September this year The rapid increase is mainly from the Indian market. The production orders for towels alone have reached 2 million. At the same time, a company in Zhejiang also said that they have received a large order from the international brand ZARA and are preparing to produce hundreds of thousands of tablecloths for it. The company pointed out: This order was originally handled by an Indian company, but because the technology of Indian companies could not keep up, ZARA handed over the order to them.
India is also concerned about the loss of a large number of international orders. in �I am anxious in my heart. However, since these behaviors are normal market behaviors, India has no right to intervene and can only watch the orders slip away. The textile industry is India’s dominant industry, contributing 7% of India’s industrial output value. The textile industry has created more than 45 million direct jobs. For such an important industry, India’s technology is still so backward, which is indeed very speechless. Judging from the current development trend, let alone India becoming the world’s largest textile producer, even Vietnam is further and further behind India.
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