Basic textiles export rebounds but from a poor base

Basic textiles export comprising fibres, spun and filament yarns jumped 35% YoY in January 2020, both in terms of US$ and INR worth US$869 million or INR6,098 crore. They accounted for 3.3% of total merchandise exported from India during the month. A year ago, the same group of textiles had accounted over 2.4% of total merchandised export after declining sharply by 24% in US$ term and by 16% in INR term. Hence, the sharp growth in January 2020, is in juxtapose with a very low base. If that decline is nullified, than the growth in January work out to just 2.4%. Meanwhile, the INR to an US$ slightly weakened to average INR70.17 this January from INR70.02 last year.

Spun yarns, the second largest component forming basic textiles saw shipment total 132 million kg (up 37% YoY) worth US$362 million (up 29.5%) or INR2,540 crore (up 30%). The unit value realization of all types of spun yarn averaged US$2.75 per kg, lower by US cents 16 from a year ago but up US cents 4 from previous month. Bangladesh was the largest market for spun yarns, topping both in terms of volume and value, and rising year on year.

Cotton yarn export was 108 million kg worth US$300 million (INR2,110 crore), up 29% from a year ago level. 77 countries imported cotton yarn from India in January at an average price of US$2.79 a kg, up US cents 4 from previous month but down US cents 17 from a year ago.

100% man-made fibre yarns exports jumped further 26% in January extending the rally seen since November. They comprised 3 million kg of viscose yarn, 3.3 million kg of polyester yarn and 1.6 million kg of acrylic yarn. The rise was led by viscose yarn, which more than doubled in terms of volume and up 70% in value.

Viscose yarn worth US$8.4 million or INR58.6 crore was exported at an average price of US$2.81 per kg in January to 32 countries. Of these Bangladesh, Turkey and Belgium were the major markets. Export to Bangladesh was worth US$1.82 million, followed by Turkey at US$1.29 million and Belgium worth US$1.17 million. Iran was the fourth largest importer of viscose yarn during January.

Polyester spun yarns export was worth US$7.18 million and were exported to 42 countries at average unit price of US$2.16 a kg, down US cents 20 from last year. Turkey remained as the largest importer of polyester yarn, followed by Morocco and USA.

Blended spun yarns worth US$41 million were exported in January, up 35% YoY. During the month, 10.3 million kg of PC yarns was exported worth US$24 million while 3.8 million kg of PV yarns were exported worth US$9.60 million. Egypt was the largest importers of PC yarn from India followed by Colombia. Turkey was the single largest importer of PV yarns from India followed distantly by Brazil.

All kinds of filament yarns (the smallest part of basic textiles) shipment totaled 69.6 million kg (up 36% YoY), valued at US$103 million (up 16% YoY). But the jump largely reflected the 23% decline recorded in January 2019. Only viscose filament yarn exports were sluggish while others recorded sharp increases up in value terms with significant increases.

Source: Fibre To Yarn Export Statistics – India report