The Hindu Business Line : Surat textile biz may take a while to get back to shape

Floods cause havoc
Some of the 400 dyeing and processing houses in Surat and the adjoining districts may have lost a third of their business
Around 40,000 textile material shops in Surat may have lost business worth about Rs 100 crore per day since the flood struck

Surat , Aug. 18

The coming season of festivals such as Navratri, Puja, Diwali and Onam in different parts of India may not be preceded this time with shops displaying festoons announcing "Sale". The virtual destruction of the textile stock in Surat and the flood-ravaged areas of Gujarat may have put paid to this. People may be forced to buy fewer and costlier clothes, as there is little possibility of the city's five lakh textile workers putting the cotton and polyester business back on the rails any time soon.

Exodus of labourers

An increasing number of people reporting to hospitals with cases of malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases in Surat and adjoining areas has triggered an exodus of skilled labourers and those in textile business fear that it may take them weeks, or even a couple of months, to return and start working again. Some 400 buses and scores of trains going out of Surat these days are full of these workers. Textile is the biggest employer in Surat where nearly six lakh power-looms and as many textile workers, mainly from Orissa, Bihar and UP, produce some 3 crore metres of cloth every day. After inspecting his saree and dress material showroom, one of the 3,500-odd establishments in the famed Radhakrishna Textile Market (RKT), Mr Umaid Kothari told Business Line that he would not be able to resume normal work until, perhaps, the month-end.

"I may have returned to my shop. Even if I make it ready again, where is the staff to run it? We opened the shop on Monday but there are neither customers nor traders from other areas. For the time being, we are only busy cleaning it up, re-decorating the showroom and rewiring it. The continuing inclement weather has made it impossible for the mud to dry up."

Heavy losses

He said there are some 40,000 textile material shops in Surat which lost business worth about Rs 100 crore per day since the flood struck on August 7. This did not include losses to the establishment, stocks and brokerage.

Surat and adjoining districts such as Navsari, Vapi, Vadodara and Ankaleshwar are also home to nearly 400 dyeing and processing houses, out of the 1,000 such houses in India. They have an annual turnover of about Rs 3,000 crore. Some of these may have lost a third of their business in the floods, according to Mr Ravindra Shah, President of the Dyestuff Manufacturers Association.

Of these local dyeing houses around 45 are larger units with others being mid-sized or smaller ones. Their losses were mainly due to water entering their godowns in Surat or their raw material being damaged. The dyestuff business was expecting to increase its turnover of $1.3 billion by about 15 per cent.

Resumption delayed

Textile industry is the major consumer of dyestuff. Resumption of its normal activity may take another month or so provided they get raw material in time and dispatch the product as scheduled, particularly in view of the extremely bad road conditions due to the floods which washed away connecting roads, he said.

There are about a dozen major textile markets in the city each having hundreds, or even thousands, of small and big shops and showrooms, dealing both in wholesale and retail.

Mercifully, according to Mr Kothari, the textile mills in the slightly elevated areas like Sachin and Pandesara did not lose much in the floods. But these areas are now facing another problem: they do not have normal water to wash their textile and cannot use the water tankers available locally because of its salt content. These units are also facing the shortage of lignite and workers.

Worst affected

Mr Rakesh Baid, a chartered accountant working mainly for textile businessmen, said most of the showrooms, being situated on the ground and first floors, and weaving units in the basement or the first floors, had been the worst affected. Due to the festival season, these were all busy with dispatching stock outside Gujarat when the flood struck them last week.

He said one of his clients lost five thousand zari sarees, each worth at least Rs 10,000, meant for the marriage season. He said the looms could still be repaired and put back to work but not the computerised design programs. Similarly, grey cloth could still be used after bleaching but not other cloths.

Insurance cover

He said most textile shops lacked insurance cover. Those having it had insurance against fire and earthquake but not against floods. The saving grace may be the embroidery sector in which up to 90 per cent of plants and machinery are subsidised and insured — they alone have a hope to recover their financial losses.

Those whose looms had become unusable would not be able to make polyester and those who could were expected to weave less due to a variety of problems. As a cumulative result thereof, the coming festival season could see the prices of clothes increase and "sales" going for a toss.

Even banks are struggling to keep themselves aloft. Clearing of cheques, discontinued due to banks remaining submerged for a week at many places, was yet to resume. Inspection of ATMs, chests etc. were still being carried out, officials said.

More Stories on : Textiles | Natural Calamities | Gujarat

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page