Financial Express, India – 12 hours ago
Rakesh Sood , Arun S
New Delhi , May 15 Indian textile exporters may be beaming about the rupee’s slide in the past few days, but business has been looking up for them even before the turn in the rupee’s value. More importantly, India’s textiles exports, both in terms of volumes and value, seem to have been growing at the cost of China .
As per the latest official trade data from the US , the value of Chinese textile shipments to the US from the beginning of 2014 till March has declined by 5.39%, while India’s exports to the US have registered a 4.59% increase. In terms of volume too, India fared better with a 0.54% increase, while China suffered a decline of 1.68%.
The US accounts for a quarter of the world’s total textile and apparel imports. US’ textile imports, a third of which come from China , were worth $96.4 billion during 2014. India’s exports to the US in 2014 were $5.1 billion. In 2014, US imports till March were $21.79 billion, with India’s ‘s share at $1.47 billion.
With the rupee appreciating by nearly 12% against the dollar since last year (till the recent turnaround), the Indian textile industry had been crying itself hoarse over potential employment losses of around 6 lakh and revenue losses of $5 billion. Textile exports for 2014-08 stood at $20 billion, as against the export target of $25 billion.
But with increasing demand from the US and the slowdown of exports from China , the government now estimates that India’s textile shipments to the US would grow significantly. The growth in exports till March is expected to take off sharply now with the rupee’s sharp dip in recent days against the dollar.
Speaking to FE, Union textiles minister Shanker Singh Vahela said he expects the sliding rupee to help turn exporters’ fortunes. “Textile exporters have had a difficult time in 2014 when the rupee was rising. Though we offered them several sops to stay competitive in the global market, they were still hurting. Now we can expect them to do much better,†the minister said.
The rupee fell to a 13-month low on Wednesday afternoon at 42.55/56 against the dollar. China, on the other hand, has allowed the value of yuan to rise by around 18% against the greenback since 2005, which has severely hurt the margins of its exporters. In the first four months of 2014, the Chinese currency…
