The Open End Spinning mills plan to stop production from the end of this month with increase in prices of waste cotton, which is the main raw material for open end spinning mills.

According to the Open End Spinning Mills’ Association, the price of waste cotton has shot up to Rs 78 per kg this month. Four months ago, price of cotton waste was Rs.60 per kg when the price of cotton was Rs. 146 a kg.

Now, cotton prices have gone down to Rs. 112 a kg. But, the price of waste cotton has increased to Rs. 78 a kg mainly due to export of waste cotton.

Escalation of raw material prices has hit open end spinning mills, powerloom units, and fabric manufacturers. If the situation continued, all the 600 open end spinning mills in the country planned to stop production, in protest.

The mills appealed to the textile associations to fix waste cotton prices so that the entire textile value chain benefits. The mills have also decided to adopt cashless policy and will go for digital transaction for payments for waste cotton.

The Textile Association has appealed to the Union Government to levy 15 percent tax on export of waste cotton.