Surat textile units in dire crisis with dumping cheap fabrics by Chinese

The country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) sector in the city surat is facing tough time with dumping of finished fabrics at throw-away prices by the Chinese. Textile entrepreneurs claimed that the dumping of the crores of meters of under invoiced finished fabric imported from China at the cheap rates of Rs 7 to Rs 8 per meter is the main reason behind the crisis.

The production cost of finished fabric in the local market begins from Rs 50 per meter and goes upto Rs 500 per meter depending on the quality.

Surat weaves around 4 crore meters of fabric per day. It caters to around 45% of the MMF fabric demand in the country. But in the last one month, the weaving sector is facing the worst-ever crisis with over 50% of the powerloom machines shutting down, rendering thousands of workers jobless.

Moreover, out of the 6.5 lakh powerloom machines, around 4 lakh machines have come to a grinding halt as the demand for fabrics in the domestic market has drastically reduced following dumping of the cheap imported fabrics from China.

According to Industry sources, the powerloom sector is facing one of the never seen before situation in the last two decades. The godowns are stacked up with grey fabrics as there are no takers in the market.

Industry leaders on Tuesday called upon chief minister Anandiben Patel to urge her to take up the issue of imported fabric being dumped in the country by China with the central government and safeguard the interest of the textile industry in the state.

President of the Katargam-Ved Road Weavers Association, Devesh Patel said that since last 20 days around 70% of the weaving units in Katargam, Ved Road and Varachha have been shut down and they would be further extending the shut down till May end in order to deal with the over-production. Also most of the textile workers have not returned after the Holi, in fact many have left for their hometowns.

Managing director of Fairdeal Filaments limited, Dhirubhai Shah said that crores of meters of finished fabric is imported from China every day. This finished fabric is cheaper than the fabric manufactured in Surat. Thus, the demand for Surti polyester fabric has decreased drastically. Shah further added that over 50% of the weaving units in the city are closed. If this continues for long then the industry will be in a dire crisis.