Tiruppur Knitwear Hub Navigating Through Various Challenges
Tiruppur, which is India’s biggest knitwear hub, has been navigating through various challenges on various fronts and also overcoming them since the last few years.
But the biggest challenge in recent times has come due to the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war and through which the hub has not still been navigate through.
It started with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and countries began shutting down. Even after countries eased shutdown restrictions, consumers shunned from purchasing discretionary products.
But apparel sales picked up in 2021 and ran till mid-2022 as consumers indulged in revenge buying and this led to a boom in orders for Tiruppur clothing manufacturers.
This sudden demand for clothing led to prices of Shankar-6 cotton variety reaching unprecedented levels or nearly doubling in 2022, which also lead to doubling of cotton yarn prices.
Cotton traders cashed in on the opportunity and started hoarding cotton, which led to cotton prices climbing higher and becoming unsustainable.
Working capital of MSME spinning mills was hit as they had to invest higher amounts in buying and stocking cotton.
Another blow came when Tamil Nadu increased electricity tariffs by introducing peak-hour charges in 2022 and later on also hiked rates for high-tension industrial consumers in the third quarter of 2023.
The start of the Russian-Ukraine war in February 2022 led to high inflationary trends in countries of the European Union, the US and also India.
Once again, consumers worldwide including India tightened their purses, which led to slowdown in demand for garments, which has continued till date.
Tiruppur garment manufacturers and exporters were again in trouble as orders from global brands slowed down
Diwali which is the biggest peak period in India for purchasing apparels was slow in 2023, including for Christmas and New Year and other state festivals.
The Israel-Palestine conflict too has led to the Red Sea crisis, which has driven shipping and insurance costs up by 50 percent.
Tiruppur garment manufacturers are also troubled by the rising import of garments from Bangladesh as Indian garment manufacturers are getting their garments stitched in Bangladesh due to the lower costs.
These Indian clothing manufacturers also are able to import apparels duty free from Bangladesh as India has permitted tariff free import of Bangladeshi produced garments.
The Tiruppur textile hub employs lakhs of workers, a majority of which are women. The industry needs a helping hand, both from the state and the centre, to navigate these multiple crisis.
