Globally, fibre consumption is dominated by man-made fibres (MMF), having 70% share in the total fibre consumption, while natural fibres constitute only 30% .
It is high time India must focus on man-made textiles, along with cotton ones, to achieve the desired target of $300-billion market by 2025, said the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI).
Globally, fibre consumption is dominated by man-made fibres (MMF), having 70% share in the total fibre consumption, while natural fibres constitute only 30%.
Contrary to the global trend, fibre consumption in India is skewed towards natural fibres, especially cotton. The growth of cotton is limited owing to low agricultural land availability and price volatility. Hence, it had become important for India to focus on man-made textiles along with cotton ones, said Sanjay Jain, chairman, CITI, on Monday.
Jain also expressed concerns over rising imports of man-made textiles after the implementation of the good and services tax (GST). In the post-GST regime import of yarn, fabrics and garments has increased substantially by 60%, 12% and 29%, respectively. The government should increase the import duty on MMF-based spun yarn and fabrics as huge surge of imports has been seen in this category post-GST which is impacting spun yarn and fabric manufacturers in a big way.
Rakesh Mehra, convenor, sub-committee on MMF and yarn, CITI, said the downstream industries in the MMF textile value chain – spinning and weaving — which is also the largest employment generator in the entire value chain, are facing acute stress due to high prices of domestic staple fibre. He said this affected export competitiveness of the domestic downstream MMF textile industry and also made the sector venerable to imports of value-added MMF products.
Mehra also said anti-dumping duties in the beginning of the textile manufacturing chain hurt the downstream sector.
Currently, anti-dumping duty on purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is `4-6 per kg and `12 per kg on viscose staple fibre (VSF).
India has a huge and efficient capacity in manufacturing polyester staple fibre and VSF. Moreover, import of man-made staple fibre in 2017-18 stood at 149 million kg which is less than 15% of the total man-made staple fibre consumption in India.
Hence, it has been suggested that the government may abstain from enhancing custom duties and levying anti-dumping duties on staple fibres. This would allow the downstream industries along the value chain to grow, he added.

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