The Hindu Business Line : China likely to enter India's exclusive textile domain

THE Chairman of Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), Mr B.K. Patodia, said that he was taken up not as much by the sheer size of the Chinese manufacturing prowess as by its commercial intention.

Mr Patodia shared his experience of a China visit at the Confederation of Indian Industry's textile conference held here recently.

The interaction of the 14-member Texprocil delegation he headed with the Chinese textile industries during the recent visit, at the invitation of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), not only revealed the massive textile plants (6.32 million tonnes of domestic cotton production, 67 million spindle producing 11 million tonnes yarn) and their contribution of $97 billion textile exports made by that country in 2004 (20 per cent of global market share), but also their game plan of dominating the world textile trade (as it has aimed to double its share to 40 per cent within the next few years) too.

Mr Patodia said that because of its gigantic production capacities, China was successful in exporting mass production items vis-à-vis India's export of high valued fashion garments.

But fearing sanctions from the US and the European Union, the Chinese were now turning their attention to entering India's exclusive textile domain. One textile item that has caught China's fancy is the `six feet' saris, according to Mr Patodia. China is not only eyeing Indian traditional clothing sector but also making a serious bid to export their textile machinery as well to India. The Chinese, who are already exporting their machinery to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong, are looking at India as its prospective market. Their machinery export grew by 45 per cent from 3.6 billion in 2002 to 5.17 billion in 2003. According to the Texprocil Chief, the speed-frames produced by China today are as good as the best in the world and their combing machinery too is emerging competitive.

In this background, he felt that Chinese authorities advocacy for signing a free trade agreement with India would have serious repercussions, and he wanted the Indian textile industry to have a serious view of this move.

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