A vital segment for low-count yarn production, the open-end spinning mills in Coimbatore have been forced to cut operations drastically, now running for as little as two to three days per week as of December.

This severe scaling back is a direct result of an ‘irrational’ price hike in waste cotton - the primary recycled fiber feedstock for these mills. Spinning mills selling the waste have hiked prices for materials like Comber Noil by Rs 4-Rs 8 per kg over the last two months. This is a paradoxical situation since the price of new raw cotton has declined significantly. This artificial inflation has rendered the recycling process financially unviable.

The OE sector specializes in converting this waste (eg., Comber Noil rising from Rs 100 to Rs 108 per kg into 2-count to 30-count yarn, which supplies handlooms and power looms for staple products like 'kada' (sheeting) fabrics. Industry leaders, including the Recycle Textile Federation, confirm, mills cannot raise their output yarn prices to match the input cost hike due to weak market orders and high existing stocks. Mill operators fear that a reduction in prices for 20-count yarn could trigger a collapse in the North Indian 'kada' trading market. This crisis threatens the OE segment, which relies on a historical business model of cost-effective, recycled inputs to underpin the low-cost apparel and textile manufacturing chain. The Federation has now instructed members to procure materials only based on last month’s prices, signaling a market standoff to prevent further losses.