New Delhi, March 25 The Indian textiles sector, the country’s largest employer after agriculture, continues to take a pounding amid a worsening export performance.
The bottomlines of Indian textiles and clothing (T&C) firms are slipping deeper into the red, with the 175 T&C firms listed on the bourses clocking a 250 per cent dip in profitability during the third quarter, against a 125 per cent and a 91 per cent year-on-year hit in the preceding two quarters, according to the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry estimates.
Cumulative losses
The cumulative losses of these firms was estimated at around Rs 540 crore in the third quarter this fiscal, as against a profit of Rs 365 crore in the corresponding period of 2007-08.
During the second quarter of the current fiscal, the cumulative loss was estimated at Rs 128 crore (versus a profit of Rs 515 crore), while during the first quarter these firms had clocked a cumulative net profit figure of Rs 39 crore (versus Rs 450 crore).
According to industry players, the erosion of profits is expected to worsen in the fourth quarter, with India’s T&C exports continuing their free-fall.
Exports to US
India’s exports to its largest market, the US, continue to take a hit, even as other Asian countries have managed to get their act together and register an increase in their exports, despite the ongoing recession.
Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia, along with China, have all registered gains in their exports to the US this January, even as India and Mexico continue to see declining exports, according to the latest US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel data.
EU numbers
The European Union data for January, which is still to be released, is projected to show a similar decline in India’s exports, especially in the garments sector. The advantages of the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar are expected to kick-in only by the middle of this year.
“Over 50 per cent of India’s T&C production is export-linked. So there is a ripple effect… Things are only projected to improve by the middle of this calendar year,” the confederation’s Secretary General, Mr D.K. Nair, said.
Source : Business Line