A Spin of Hope

Things are looking up for the spinning industry after it begins to recover from the downturn of last year. Anurima Das writes.

- Anurima Das

Last July, the Northern India Textile Mills’ Association (NITMA) released a statement mentioning the distress of the spinning industry in India, highlighting how the spinners of North India were eager to shut shop once a week, just to reduce their overhead expenses. This was an extreme decision and signalled a bigger problem at hand.

Owing to poor demand for yarn from overseas markets, there arose an unchecked amount of yarn stocks. This resulted in poor liquidity and thereby came the decision of cutting down production. The reason for this, the spinners cited, was the reduction in Indian yarns. For all these years, China has been a major importer of Indian yarns; but with it holding back its imports from the beginning of 2019, the production of yarns happened at full capacity but the same did not move out of warehouses in the way it should have. The increasing amount of unused yarn output further lowered business for Indian spinners. However, much has changed during the last few months of 2019 and as we march into 2020, it will be safe to say that the spinners are readying their cart for prosperity. But is it really the time to stay hopeful?

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE LAST PHASE OF THE DECADE?

The decline in trade owing to the presence of cheaper alternatives had thrown a shadow of distress on the mills. However, the industry saw a ray of hope during the last quarter and during that phase, approximately 2,20,000–2,30,000 bales per day saw movement.