The powerloom strike, protesting against the high cotton yarn price, entered the sixth day on Wednesday.
A South India Textile Manufacturers Association representative said SITMA has decided to stop the functioning of powerlooms in Tamilnadu protesting the 60 percent hike in yarn prices.
In response to their plea, more than three lakh powerlooms (out of 4.25 lakh) stopped production and remaining are operating the looms, to fulfil their export orders, the representative said. But from April 10 almost all the powerloom owners have stopped procurement of cotton yarn. The looms are operated with the available stock of yarn.
Both the SITMA and Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) urged the Union Government to take effective steps to bring down the cotton yarn price. They also wanted a ban on Online Cotton trading, SITMA sources said.