Textile exporters asks buyers to increase prices as raw material costs rise

Knitwear exporters from Tirupur have asked buyers to increase prices against the backdrop of rising raw material costs.

Raja M Shanmugham, president, Tirupur Exporters Association, said that there ws an urgent need to hike the prices of knitwear products for Tirupur's exports to sustain and face the challenging business environment prevailing for the past four months.

The textile town in Tamil Nadu exports products worth about Rs 27,000 crore.

After the central government increased the minimum support price for cotton (kappas) procured from farmers, lint (ginned cotton) prices have risen from Rs 36,016/candy (355.54 kgs) in August 2020 to Rs 46,720/candy in March 2021 and the association has asked the Ministry of Textiles to intervene in the matter.

Shanmugham said that the increase in cotton yarn prices, coupled with an increase in prices of accessories and dyeing charges have made the manufacturing of garments costlier. He pointed out that the fabric cost for manufacturing garments was Rs 384.16/kg in the month of August 2020 has now (March 2021) gone up to Rs 464.8/kg, an increase of 21%.

Shanmugham  said the difference in prices of regular cotton yarn and organic cotton yarn was just Rs 10/kg before November 2020, while now the difference was almost Rs 120 a kg. The cost for manufacturing garments was Rs  390.88 a kg in the month of August 2020 and has now (March 2021) gone up to Rs  566.72 a kg, an increase of 45 per cent.

Shanmugham said in the case of cotton and Spandex yarn, due to the increase in prices of Spandex yarn, the cost for manufacturing garments was Rs 432.32/kg in August 2020 and had now (March 2021) gone up to Rs 546.56/kg, an increase of 26%.

The association has appealed to buyers to consider the overall increase in the prices of fabric, which has resulted in an increase in cost of manufacturing of garments and requested them to revise the prices of garments to achieve a win-win situation.