Ludhiana industry not affected by rising yarn prices

Notwithstanding rise in yarn prices, hosiery industry in Ludhiana seems content as they registered good sales in this winter season.

Vinod Thapar, president, Ludhiana knitwear industry, maintained this season has been good particularly for the knitwear industry. The rise in business has been partly due to the good festival season coupled with factors like extended marriage season. According to Thapar, last year the hosiery industry did a business close to Rs 8,500 crore and this year they expect a double-digit growth.

“Factors like power and manpower shortage prevented industry from achieving full capacity utilisation, but we still expect the growth to be in double digits.”

Ludhiana knitwear cluster contributes almost 80 per cent of the total woollen/acrylic output of the country. Its product range includes garments including t-shirts, sweat shirts, pullovers and jackets. Around 400,000 people are directly or indirectly employed in the knitwear industry. There are almost 14,000 MSME units in Ludhiana, out of which 9,800 are micro units, 2,800 are small units, and 1,400 are medium-sized units in the cluster.

Sudershan Jain, president, Knitwear and Apparel Manufacturer Association of Ludhiana, maintained that already 80 per cent of the goods have been sold. So the rise in yarn prices would not impact the industry in a big way.

However, sharp increase in yarn prices would definitely impact the industry for summer clothing. To prevent any major loss, industrialists are going slow on creating inventories as they expect prices to soften.

Jain however cautioned if prices of yarn continue to firm they would be forced to revise the prices of garment in line with rise in input costs.