Garment manufacturers demand government measures to stabilise viscose staple fibre and cotton prices

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 22, 2021

Garment manufacturers are struggling due to the constantly fluctuating prices of viscose staple fibre and cotton, and are demanding the government impose measures to stabilise prices.

 
Financial struggles caused by unstable prices are causing added hardship for garment manufacturers, which are also trying to recover from the drop in orders due to Covid-19. The Apparel Export Promotion Council has asked the central government to remove anti-dumping duties on VSF to make the domestic product more competitive compared to currently cheaper options from abroad, TNN reported. 
 
“Cost of production of garments has witnessed huge surge recently only due to ever increasing rates of yarn,” said AEPC executive council member, Harish Dua, TNN reported.

'Recently, our costs have gone up by 10-15% on account of various factors, but the biggest one being rise in the rates of raw material like yarn. This has become a huge headache for our industry and the need of the hour is the removal of anti-dumping duty on VSF.”
 
Demand for VSF has increased both in India and on the global market, according to Dua. India’s knitting and weaving sectors have been importing large volumes of VSF spun yarn as it was cheaper than domestic VSF yarn, which is expensive due to anti-dumping duties. The AEPC is thus lobbying to have anti-dumping duties on VSF removed. 
 
The issue of fluctuating cotton prices, although not a new one, is currently causing particular challenges due to recent steep price increases. A number of garment manufacturers are also calling for the government to control prices to prevent steep fluctuations and enable the sector to get back on its feet. The Union Government has identified the textile sector as worthy of special focus in its bid to increase domestic production and decrease the country’s trade deficit.