Textiles export plunges in March as China lockdowns due to Covid
Textiles export comprising fabrics, fibres, spun and filament yarns fell 39% YoY in March 2020, both in terms of US$ and INR worth US$773 million or INR5,278 crore. They accounted for 3.6% of total merchandise exported from India during the month. A year ago, the same group of textiles export had accounted over 3.9% of total merchandised. The sharp decline is attributed to the complete lockdown in China, the major trading partner, due to Covid-19. In India, the lockdown was imposed only in the last week of the month. Thus, textiles export losses for March was equivalent of one week.
Spun yarns shipment totaled 86 million kg (down 46% YoY)) worth US$247 million (down 47%) or INR1,788 crore (down 44%). The unit value realization of all types of spun yarn averaged US$2.87 per kg, down US cents 2 from a year ago but up US cents 3 from previous month. Bangladesh was the largest market for spun yarns, topping both in terms of volume and value, and growing 7% year on year. However, lockdown in Bangladesh also adversely impacted India’s shipment to the country.
Cotton yarn export was 69 million kg worth US$202 million (INR1,462 crore), down 45% from a year ago level. 74 countries imported cotton yarn from India in March at an average price of US$2.94 a kg, up US cents 2 from previous month and also from a year ago.
100% man-made fibre yarns exports dropped 33% in March unable to sustain the growth seen since No-vember due to coronavirus pandemic slowing global economic activity for major part of the month. Export comprised 1.9 million kg of viscose yarn, 3.8 million kg of polyester yarn and 1.5 million kg of acrylic yarn.
Viscose yarn worth US$6.1 million or INR44 crore was exported at an average price of US$3.16 per kg in March to 27 countries. Of these, the major market was Bangladesh worth US$1.9 million, followed distantly by Turkey at US$0.8 million and Belgium US$0.5 million. Iran was the fourth largest importer of viscose yarn during the month.
Polyester spun yarns export was worth US$8.7 million were exported to 46 countries at average unit price of US$2.27 a kg, down US cents 9 from last year, but up US cents 6 from previous month. Turkey continued to be the largest importer of polyester yarn, followed by Brazil and Mexico.
Blended spun yarns worth US$26 million were exported in March, less than half of what was exported in March 2019. During the month, 7 million kg of PC yarns was exported worth US$16.50 million while 1.8 mil-lion kg of PV yarns were exported worth US$4.7 million. Egypt was the largest importers of PC yarn from In-dia followed by Brazil. Turkey was the single largest importer of PV yarns from India followed distantly by Iran.
All kinds of filament yarns shipment totaled 57 million kg (down 17% YoY), valued at US$83 million (down 27% YoY).
Cotton fibre shipment shrank more than 50% in March at 3.9 lakh bales. This takes the total export to 37.73 lakh bales worth US$1,018 million in the first six months of 2019-20 marketing season. This was 10 lakh bales less that those shipped in the same months of previous season. Bangladesh was the largest market for Indian cotton export, followed by China, Vietnam and Indonesia. No cotton was shipped to Pakistan this month, which had imported 56 thousand bales in March 2019.
