Textile export industry takes brunt of coronavirus outbreak

The Indian textile export industry has been hit the most among the many industries in India, which are facing the brunt of travel and export-import restrictions imposed due to the outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus in China.

K V Srinivasan, Chairman of Cotton Yarn textile exports promotion council, told ANI, "Coronavirus was unexpected. We are yet to judge the full extent of the problem as the Chinese markets were closed for the Chinese New Year. They were supposed to have had opened now during this week. The latest information we got is that they have been asked to close for another 10 days."

"We are also trying to understand the full implication of the coronavirus in the industrial activity in China because people are saying that a lot of factories have closed down," he added.

China is an important market for Indian textile export, particularly for raw cotton and yarn. In cotton yarn, India's monthly export is around 90 million kg, of which 30 per cent is exported to China.

Srinivasan said Indian textile exports are re-exported by China as finished goods to the US. "With the coronavirus scare affecting the trade between US and China, India's export industry has also been affected," he said.

He further added that the forecast of the textile export industry is not very optimistic. "If the virus is going to affect the industrial activity in China then definitely our textile exports will take a beating. However, in next two to three weeks, we will know the extent of impact and if it continues for a very long period then there will be a very big implication on the Indian textile industry as we depend a lot on the exports to China," Srinivasan said.

Meanwhile, the chairman also said in the present situation scope of the Indian textile industry getting more orders from other foreign countries is set to increase.