Man-made fibre textiles exports reach all-time high

27 Sep '08

5 min read

Exports of Indian man-made fibre textiles touched an all-time high of Rs.12,624 crores during 2007-08; showing a growth of over 16% compared to the previous financial year. What is more remarkable about this achievement is that it has been accomplished in the face of a sharp appreciation of the rupee, spiraling oil prices and raw material costs, high interest rates and general economic slowdown in some of the major markets, said Shri Sanjeev Saran, Chairman, The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai on 26th September 2008.

The SRTEPC Chairman noted with satisfaction that the exports during the first four months of the current financial year (April-July 2008) continued to indicate positive trends. As per the available port data, exports amounted to Rs. 4612 crores, registering a growth of over 35% in rupee terms as compared with the exports during April-July 2007.

However, we have to temper the optimism as the recent announcement of Government, reducing duty drawback rates across the board for all synthetic textile products will jeoparidise this sector. We will have a more realistic trend of our exports in the coming months for the rest of the year and it will retain the growth trend which we have been witnessing in the recent past, Shri Saran said.

While highlighting the trends in exports, the SRTEPC Chairman said that our exports were directed to 163 countries during the year. Countries in Middle East/Gulf continued to remain the major markets during 2007-08 with a share of 29%; followed by EU with a share of 20%. UAE remains the top market for Indian MMF Textiles with a share of over 16% of total MMF textiles, followed by Turkey.

However the third largest market USA, which accounted for over 6% of Indian total MMF textiles, declined by nearly 9% compared to previous year due to recession in the US economy. Other main markets for MMF textiles are Brazil, Germany, UK, Saudi Arabia and Italy.

The noteworthy trend during April-July 2008 is the remarkable growth in export of fabrics by over 70% and fibre by over 34%. However, the exports of value added items like made-ups increased by only 12% and yarn nearly 9%. Afghanistan and Pakistan have emerged as the new promising markets. Other high growth markets at present are UAE, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Brazil, Egypt, Bangladesh, Syria, Kenya, Mexico and UK.

The Chairman urged the members to take note of the changing market scenario and product matrix while planning their marketing strategies to achieve the ambitious target of US$3600 million for exports of man-made fibre textiles for the year 2008-09.

While dwelling on the promotional strategy, the Chairman pointed out that the Council has initiated new steps to take exports of synthetic and rayon textiles to greater heights. One of its endeavours towards this strategy is the Product Development Programme. With a view to enhance the product basket Council has initiated the product development of synthetic fibre in Surat which is the hub for synthetic filament fabrics for which substantial assistance has been obtained from the Government under the MAI Scheme.

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