The Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) has urged the textile mills to ensure continuous supply of yarn to the weaving and garmenting units and to retain the existing prices till the end of the month.
Association chairman J. Thulasidharan has said in a release here that the spiralling cotton prices and the precarious cotton scenario in the country were threatening the survival of the domestic industry.
Export
Though the textile industry was seeking calibration of cotton exports from the beginning of the new cotton season next month, the Union Government recently announced unlimited export of cotton from October 1.
Representatives of the textile industry association proposed to meet the Union Commerce and Agriculture Ministers and also appeal to the Prime Minister to intervene and stop unlimited export of cotton.
Hence, he urged the mills to ensure supply of yarn to the handloom, powerloom and knitted garmenting sectors without any interruption.
This would help the value adding segments to meet their export commitments and honour the contracts they had entered into. He also appealed to the mills to avoid increasing the yarn prices frequently and to retain the existing prices till the end of September.
Prices
The mills would not be in a position to sustain the prices after October 1 if cotton exports were not controlled. Yarn price would move according to the cotton price from October 1, he said.
“An immediate decision by the Centre (to ensure availability of adequate quantity of cotton at competitive prices to the domestic industry) will enable the Indian textile industry to sustain its competitiveness in the global market and avoid competitors such as China and Pakistan to derive advantage of the Indian cotton and capture the export markets that the Indian industry is supplying to for years,” he said.
Staff Reporter adds from Tirupur: The Tirupur Exporters Association has claimed that the spinning mills' associations like SIMA and Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association had agreed to them that the yarn prices would be maintained at the existing levels till the month-end.
In a press release issued here on Friday, the Tirupur Exporters Association president, A. Sakthivel, said that the assurance was following a meeting organised by TEA office-bearers with the SIMA chairman and vice-chairman in the presence of Apparel Export Promotion Council Chairman Premal Udani here on September 8.
Mr. Sakthivel added that TASMA president P. Appukutty had also assured them that the member units would be advised not to increase the prices of yarn till month-end.
Meanwhile, industry sources feel that the stabilization for just the remaining 20 days of the month after the yarn prices had been increased by the spinning mills steeply in the last 20 days would not help the apparel industry in any manner.
Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association president M.P. Muthurathinam had pointed out that the yarn prices had risen by about Rs. 20 in the last 20 days.
