Gathering at the Asian Textile Conference (ATEXCON) in Southern India, the leading names of the Indian textile chain brainstormed about reaffirming the narrative of Asia as a global hub.
The executives reflected optimism about the future and asserted a commitment to working toward sustainable growth.
Organized by the Confederation of Indian Textiles (CITI), the two-day event last week was the 11th edition of ATEXCON, this time held in the Southern city of Coimbatore. CITI is a leading industry organization, covering the entire textile value chain from farm to garments to machinery. It is the only national association which covers the entire spectrum of the textiles and clothing Industry spanning both domestic and export markets.
Coimbatore itself is a hub for textile machinery, located in the state of Tamil Nadu, which hosts more than 40 percent of the spinning industry, and the important cluster of Tirupur, where approximately half of India’s apparel exports are created.
The conference theme, “2025 & Beyond: Asia’s Global Hub for Textile Manufacturing & Consumers,” worked through the upcoming time horizon, while taking stock of the growth over the past few years. Speakers recognized the fact that Asia accounted for 65 percent of the approximate $800 billion world trade in the sector in 2021. Figures quoted at the sessions included those from the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), which noted that Asia and Oceania accounted for 89 percent of ring spinning capacity, 82 percent of shuttle-less weaving and 85 percent of circular knitting capacity in the world. As well, 50 percent of cotton and 80 percent of man-made fibers were produced in Asia in 2021.
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The hierarchy of the industry present at the event was represented by the top union minister for textiles, Piyush Goyal, who was the chief guest at the event. Goyal noted that the industry had been going through a difficult period, but that overall exports from India had gone up in the last two years, indicative of the possibilities across sectors.
“Last year was a difficult period. Everybody felt that exports could not be sustained. But after growing from $500 billion to $675 billion in 2021-22, our exports rose to $776 billion from $675 billion in 2022-23,” he said. He added that this growth was despite the fact that the pandemic was still ongoing, as was the Russia-Ukraine war. “India was the fastest growing economy, the fifth largest in terms of the size of GDP. The country was able to maintain low inflation and grow our exports by 55 percent in this time,” he pointed out.
Also seated on the podium for the session, were more than 15 of the top executives from the industry, including top ministers of the state of Tamil Nadu. Goyal offered a response to the troubled spinning mills, which have been on strike in the state, with demands being conveyed to the central government. He noted that “both the Center and State governments should collectively work in the spirit of cooperative federalism for the better future of all the citizens.” This was received with satisfaction by many of those who have been agitating over the decline in manufacturing and production over the past year.
Guest of honor included R. Gandhi, Minister for Handlooms and Textiles and R. Sakkarapani, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, among others.
Many of the industry associations too came together to support the conference, including the Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) which is celebrating its 90th year in 2023, and was the host association for the event. Others included leading textile trade associations like the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), Joint Apparel Association Forum, Sri Lanka, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), The Clothing Manufactures Association of India (CMAI), Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC), Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA).
Summarizing the situation simply, CITI chairman, T Rajkumar observed: “India is sixth in textile exports and accounts for 4 percent of global trade. The pandemic may be over, but the economies have yet to recover. Geopolitical tensions remain high. World growth is forecast to be down, inflation is high. Moreover, the decline in demand for textile and apparel products runs the world over. It’s important to understand the changing trends to take it head on.”
It was also a time to flag and address important issues, including the stagnation in production in the past few months and the need for more financial measures from the government to help the industry. According to figures from CITI, monthly exports of textile and clothing in July were down by 13.74 percent from July 2022; apparel exports were down by 17.64 percent.
While many manufacturers noted the worrying trend, a general mood of optimism for the coming months held throughout the conference.
“The textile industry is facing financial stress due to slow demand and price volatility of inputs in the recent past and the government is requested to come up with measures, including a one-year moratorium for repayment of the principal amount and converting three-year loans under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) into six-year term loans,” Rajkumar said.
Navdeep S. Sodhi, from Gherzi Textil Organisation, a textile management consulting and engineering company based out of Zurich, was the knowledge partner for the event. Noting some of the key policy imperatives for the public and private sector, and looking ahead for the growth in Asia, he spoke about technology upgrades as a key point. “Today there is a shift in the paradigm, there is a huge potential in Asia for technology to be upgraded,” he said.
Another important point was cluster development. “Our industry thrives in natural clusters —Ludhiana, Tirupur, Faisalabad,” he said, naming a few in India. “Sometimes we get carried away by listed companies, which only account for 10 percent of volume—the others are not listed. Millions of small and medium enterprises populate these clusters, and are the backbone of the industry and they are the ones facing challenges. Public investment needs to be directed here,” he noted.
The cluster of Tirupur, less than a two-hour distance from Coimbatore, has been held up as an example of private enterprise for the industry in India. With exports of approximately 350 billion rupees or $4.21 billion in the financial year ending March 31, 2023, this cluster houses more than 2,000 garment export units and another 18,000 ancillary units.
Other points included scaling up to integrate with the global value chain, a point that China has understood well, addressing policy distortions which he described as “‘”a low hanging fruit.” Also, fiscal, structural or other policy distortions, as well as unhindered and unfettered access to raw materials, and the importance of building brands.
Panels included discussions on the need to better focus on man-made fiber and technical textiles—an important avenue for growth for Asia as cotton supplies and exports become limited in the coming years, as well as the growth of the cotton textiles themselves, with better seeds, productivity and yield.