Textile: China tops India in export

Moreover, in those categories where India has seen high rates of growth over 50 per cent, China has posted increases in the range of 180-1499 per cent. Of course, these increases have been concomitant with a slide in realisations.

For instance, in Cotton M/B trousers, where India has seen a 51.99 per cent rise in exports to 3.42 million sq mtr, China has seen a 1,583 per cent increase to 27.51 m sq mtr. However, realisations have dipped in both instances, as expected after the MFA, the former has seen a $1.73 (or 24 per cent) dip to $5.5 per sq mtr compared to $2.88 decrease (42 per cent) for the latter to $3.84 per sq mtr.

In instances, where India has seen negative growth, the Chinese realisation has dipped even further. Like in the case of man-made fibre slacks. In this category, Chinese realisation has dipped 48 per cent compared to 33 per cent for India. China posted a 391.5 per cent increase in this category against a 57.3 per cent dip for India in the January-March period.

But Indian industry is unperturbed by the Chinese aggression, which, it believes, is facilitated by huge cash subsidies in the form of currency manipulation and condoning of non-performing assets with textile companies. Domestic textile exporters anticipate US and EU importers turning averse to imports from China, as Washington and Brussels mull caps on import of fast growth products from that country.

The items which are of major export interest to India include cotton baby garments, cotton coats, knit shirts, cotton skirts, towels, slacks, woollen coats, dresses, trousers etc. Most of these have shown satisfactory growth since January.