India manages to remain as the world’s second largest textile and clothing exporter.
Export of cotton yarn, fabric, made-ups and handloom products rose 18 per cent year-on-year in April.

The Indian spinning sector’s long pending demand of extending the MEIS benefit for cotton yarn export is yet to be considered. If considered, this would enable the Indian spinning segment to have a level playing field and utilise the surplus spinning capacity and also convert the 6-7 million bales of raw cotton being exported into value added yarn.

In a span of eight months, demonetisation and GST had a marked effect on the performance of the textile industry. The industry registered only 5.37 per cent export growth during 2017.

China, the largest exporter, accounted for a 34.2 per cent share during 2017. Vietnam is fast catching up.

The yarn market has gained momentum in recent times and the unsold yarn stock level is one of the lowest in recent years. The demand for coarse and medium counts, especially open-end yarn, both in the domestic market and export market has increased considerably and several mills have got advance bookings.

But China shifted its major volume of yarn imports from India to Vietnam, which had a 11.93 per cent share in the global cotton yarn trade during 2015.