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Anil Sasi

New Delhi, Oct. 9 A slowdown in the Chinese textiles juggernaut has sparked off a spill-over of orders into Vietnam and Indonesia, which have effectively pushed India out of the list of top five apparel exporters to the US market in the January-July period in 2008.

Indian apparel exports to the US have suffered a 2.39 per cent dip in order values, amid an overall slowdown in the US imports, even as Vietnam’s exports have surged 23 per cent and Indonesia by 1.37 per cent and Bangladesh by nine per cent till July , data released by the Office of Textiles and Apparel under the US Department of Commerce showed.

According to industry insiders, the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar since July is unlikely to provide any immediate respite to textile and apparel exporters since most big units have already entered into hedging contracts to counter any possible uptrend in the rupee.

There, however, has been an uptick in home textile exports to the US, with the value of India’s exports in this category up 0.55 per cent during this period despite a dip in overall home textile imports by the US.

Apparel exports are considered more important than home textiles’ since the value addition during the manufacturing stage and the employment generation potential are much higher in the case of apparels. The broad trend in Europe is likely to be similar, experts said.

“There seems to be a clear spill-over from China to South-East Asian countries, with Vietnam emerging the biggest gainer. While Chinese exports to the US have declined nearly 3.5 per cent, much of the gains have gone to Vietnam and Indonesia,” Mr D.K. Nair, Secretary-General, Confederation of Textile Industry, said.

More Stories on : Readymade Garments | Exports & Imports

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