Tamil Nadu textile mills that make polyester or polyester cotton yarn having forced to stop production for two days a week for four weeks as prices for the yarn had dropped and the mills were find the price unviable and with export orders too declining have started exploring new markets and products, said Prabhu Dhamodharan, secretary of Indian Texpreneurs Federation.

Further, some mills have taken sample orders from buyers in Ludhiana, Delhi and Tirupur. They plan to study the customer demand, explore new markets and products, he said.

Some mills that found it difficult to stop production for two days a week went in for 30 percent cut in production.

For instance, price of a specific variety of polyester cotton yarn was Rs. 185-a-kg four months back and it dropped to about Rs. 150-a-kg two months ago.

There are positive enquiries now and mills are able to sell some of the stock with them.

The prices have improved to Rs. 155 - Rs. 158 a kg. The demand is picking up slowly during the last one week to 10 days, he said.

The mills have now decided that individual units will decide about the production based on their stock and order book position.

The member mills of the federation have decided to have a pricing mechanism and announce a bench mark price twice a month. This will give an indication of the price levels in the market.

The weaving units had reduced production for several reasons for the last few months and were reviving operations only now. The textile mills in Tamil Nadu are hopeful of orders going up in the coming days. Most of the mills sell the yarn to weaving units in Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Ichalkaranji.