Garment industrialists demand anti-dumping duty on VSF, stable cotton rates, Retail News, ET Retail
According to Harish Dua, executive council member of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) , “Cost of production of garments has witnessed huge surge recently only due to ever increasing rates of yarn. Recently, our costs have gone up by 10-15{cbf6da10fac2230370cea9448ed9872290737d25c88b8c8db3eefaf8c399e33d} on account of various factors, but the biggest one being rise in the rates of raw material like yarn. This has become a huge headache for our industry and the need of the hour is the removal of anti-dumping duty on VSF. Owing to the growing demand for VSF and its blended textiles and clothing market opportunities, the demand for it has increased steeply not only in India, but also across the globe. As the imported yarn price was cheaper due to high anti-dumping duty prevailing on the domestic VSF, the weaving and knitting sectors have been importing large volumes of VSF spun yarn. The import of VSF spun yarn has increased from 2 million kilos during 2016-17 to 56 million kilos during 2019-20. In the post-Covid market scenario, VSF price has increased from $1.15 to $ 1.50 per kilo during the last few months.”
According to Narinder Mittal, general secretary of Ludhiana Business Forums, “In addition to curbing the hike in the rates of yarn, another issue that needs to be addressed immediately is controlling the volatility in the cotton market, which is giving us sleepless nights. There has been steep increase in cotton price within a short span of time, which are in excess of Rs 5,000 per candy. This is a huge spurt. If the cotton rates are not stabilised, the cost of production of spinning mills will keep on rising and, as a result, the raw material purchased by us from them will cost more and our cost of production too will rise. Under the present circumstances, when there is a crisis due to coronavirus, we cannot take the risk of increasing rates of our end products. As a result, we will have to bear the increase and in case we do otherwise and increase our rates, our sales will drop. Therefore, it is our request to the government to immediately do something to control the rates of cotton in the country.”