Dear Friends,

In India, the month of April brought in new developments, not only seasonally (spring), but financially too. For the businesses, it was that rush time of the year, wherein most of us, and in particular our financial teams were busy in getting their books in order. Ending in the month of March, the previous F.Y 2023-2024, was seen as the ‘year of consolidation’ for many in the textile and apparel business.

The findings of the January 2024 Global Textile Industry Survey (GTIS) by International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) has shown a significant improvement in the business climate, signaling a potential turning point driven by lower inflation rates, increased real wages and consumer sentiment in the USA, alongside expectations of interest rate cuts.

The ITMF findings augur well for the overall sentiment of the Indian textiles and apparel industry which for the last couple of years is desperately looking for a trigger that can pave the way for its revival. Experts and observers strongly believe that the sluggish trend has bottomed out and from here onwards things will look up gradually.  The revival process will, however, take at least 6-12 months, as per the experts.

Trade Estimates

According to the quick estimates data on India's merchandise trade released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, exports of cotton yarn / fabrics / made-ups, handloom products etc. from India grew by 6.65 per cent in April 2024 over April 2023. Cumulative Exports of Textiles and Apparel during April 2024 have registered a growth of 0.89% over April 2023. However, the share of T&A in overall exports has declined to 7.9% in April 2024 from 8.0% in April 2023.

On the cotton textiles front, export of cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, cotton made-ups, etc., during April-March F.Y. 2023-2024 registered a growth of 8.66%, reaching a level of USD 10,402.24 million compared to F.Y. 2023-2024 when export figures achieved a level of USD 9573.29 million.

In its Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report (April 2024), the WTO said the volume of global merchandise trade will increase by 2.6% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 as economic pressures ease and incomes rise.  As the conditions improve globally during 2024, the Indian industry will also definitely show good growth. While it may be too early to predict a significant trade recovery, the industry expects things to gradually turn out to be in the favourable zone over the months to come.

Elections 2024

Amidst activities centered on the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the outcome of this democratic exercise holds immense significance, for all dimensions of the nation including the political landscape, the industrial sector and the economic trajectory.

The industrial sector is intricately woven into the fabric of India's economic growth story. It serves as a key driver of employment, innovation, and wealth creation. Thus, the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will determine the trajectory of economic reforms, infrastructure development, and trade relations, all of which are critical factors shaping the business environment.

TEXPROCIL Export Awards

The Council held its Annual Export Awards Ceremony for rewarding meritorious performance in exports of cotton textiles during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Shri Santosh Kumar Sarangi, DGFT, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India as the Chief Guest, along with Smt. Roop Rashi, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, as the Guest of Honour, distributed the awards at a function held in President Hotel, Mumbai on May 7, 2024.

Delivering his special address, Shri Santosh Kumar Sarangi, DGFT, said that there are many obvious challenges and there is a need to catch up with some of our competing countries to ensure that India remains as one of the biggest suppliers of quality textiles and apparels to the whole world.

In her presidential address, Smt. Roop Rashi, Textile Commissioner said that the textile industry has made India proud through its achievements only because of the commitment and dedication of the current and earlier generations. She was also in agreement with the many issues pointed out in my welcome address and assured speedy resolutions by taking a stand shoulder to shoulder with the industry in the efforts to grow the country’s exports.

Way forward

Friends, F.Y 2023-2024 has seen the country's cotton yarn, fabrics/made-ups, etc. under the purview of the Council record a positive performance. On average, India exports these products worth USD one billion every month. Also, this is one of the key product categories out of 30 closely monitored by the Ministry of Commerce.

Our exporters have relentlessly pursued the path towards trade consolidation in the top five export markets for the sector during the last fiscal year namely, the US, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, and the UAE. The outbound shipments also entered new geographies like Anguilla-The British Islands; Serbia; Georgia; Sweden; Cyprus; Azerbaijan; and Iran. The other new markets explored by domestic exporters of cotton textiles included Zambia, Cote D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Russia.

The achievement holds significance on account of the formidable challenges faced by the industry due to the contraction in demand, geopolitical troubles (like the two major wars) and the Red Sea trouble for shipping of export goods.

Trade has benefited immensely with the active involvement of the industry stakeholders, their unmatched entrepreneurial skills. Further, the active involvement of the Government helped to increase support by introducing various reforms and joint consultations with stakeholders in devising innovative strategies to ensure growth in our exports.

During the current fiscal and beyond, the cotton textile sector needs to pursue strategies to maintain the ongoing growth momentum and emerge as the key supplier to global T&A brands. The larger goal is to increase the country’s textile exports to USD 100 billion by 2030. We are already at the halfway mark of this decade reaching an export level of USD 34.43 billion.

Towards this end, we are confident that our exporting community will continue to contribute towards maintaining our dominance in the cotton-based textile value chain along with improving competitiveness in the other segments for the development of a vibrant textile sector.



:: TEXPROCIL ::