Analysis of the status quo of India's textile testing industry in 2021

In addition to China, India is a country with a relatively complete textile testing equipment manufacturing industry chain. It is the world's second largest producer of cotton and the second largest producer of chemical fiber. The output of cotton and chemical fiber accounted for 23% and 8% of the world, respectively. Spinning Production capacity accounts for about 22% of the world. India's textile and clothing exports rank second and third in the world respectively. According to United Nations statistics, India exported a total of US$35.48 billion in textiles and clothing to the world in 2018. The textile industry is an important civilian production and foreign exchange earning industry in India. It contributes approximately 7% of India’s industrial output value and 15% of its exports each year, and directly employs more than 45 million people.

 

Affected by the new crown virus pneumonia epidemic in 2021, India has adopted blockade measures to prevent and control the epidemic. Production activities have ceased and ports have been shut down. This has a strong impact on the textile industry chain. Textile enterprises have declined in operation, closed more and more, and the unemployment rate has continued to rise. Since June began to unblock it in stages, the Indian economy once began to gradually recover, but the current spread of the epidemic has intensified. Affected by multiple factors such as employment and supply chain, many export companies cannot start production normally and guarantee on-time delivery, resulting in exports. Lost orders.

 

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, in April 2021, India’s textile and apparel exports shrank by 87.5% year-on-year, and the decline in exports has narrowed month by month. In June, textile and apparel exports increased by 10% year-on-year. (2020-2021 fiscal year) the monthly export value achieved positive growth for the first time, and the cumulative export value has not reversed the negative growth trend. From April to August 2021, India exported a total of US$10.87 billion in textiles and clothing, a year-on-year decrease of 31.7%. In terms of product categories, clothing exports, which accounted for 43.6% of the total exports of the Indian textile industry, fell the most. From April to August, India’s global exports of clothing totaled US$4.78 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 38.3%; chemical fiber textiles (accounting for 13.2% of India’s total exports of textiles and clothing) %) The decline in exports is also obvious. From April to August, exports decreased by 38.7% year-on-year; cotton textiles (exports accounted for 36.6%) and carpets (exports accounted for 5.4%) fell relatively low, and the export value fell year-on-year respectively. Decrease 18.5% and 14.4%. Affected by work stoppages, production cuts, and declining exports, the Indian textile industry's production has also fallen sharply. According to statistics from the Ministry of Statistics and Planning and Implementation of India, in April 2021, Indian textile and clothing production fell by 80.8% and 84.1% at one time. Seeing relief, the current production has not yet resumed growth and has slowed down again.

Affected by the epidemic, the prospects of the Indian textile industry are still not optimistic. At the beginning of the outbreak, the number of cases in India increased slowly, but the situation began to change in the second half of the year. In mid-August, India’s daily increase in the number of confirmed cases exceeded 70,000. The media reported that its textile factory's production capacity had been drastically reduced, making it difficult to stably accept orders from the international market. Statistics show that the United States and the European Union are the most important export markets for the Indian textile industry. In 2018, India’s textile and clothing exports to the United States and the European Union accounted for 23.8% and 18.3% of its total textile and clothing exports, respectively.

 

Since May, the economies of the United States and Europe have gradually restarted, and the consumption of textile and apparel products has begun to recover. Since the second half of the year, retail sales have recovered to about 85% of the same period in 2018. Due to the compression of brand inventories to a low level in the early stage, the arrival of peak consumption seasons such as Christmas and Black Friday has prompted brands to place orders. The aggravation of the epidemic has caused India to fail to fully grasp the current round of orders, and the development pressure of the textile industry is still prominent. The rating agency ICRA said in mid-August that the sales revenue of Indian apparel exporters in the fiscal year 2020-2021 may fall by 20% to 25%, and the revenue of manufacturers focusing on the Indian domestic market is expected to fall by 30% to 40%.

 

Comparison between China and India in 2021:

Due to the remarkable results of China's epidemic prevention and control, China's textile industry chain and supply chain have gradually resumed normal operation from mid-to-late April. After the restart of the U.S. and European markets, orders from Chinese export companies rebounded, and the total export volume of the textile industry also turned negative to positive in the second half of the year, showing a trend of gradual acceleration in growth. According to the investigation of the professional associations affiliated to China Textile Federation, due to the fact that South Asian factories cannot guarantee on-time delivery, some Chinese textile companies have indeed received orders transferred from brands from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries. Among them, orders for home textiles such as towels and bedding are relatively high. Too much.

 

China has achieved significant results in epidemic prevention and control, providing fundamental development support for the textile industry. Compared with South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the advantages of China's textile industry in terms of a complete industrial system and stable supply capabilities are also particularly prominent under the epidemic. However, from the perspective of long-term trends, the factors that affect the adjustment of the international textile industry's layout, such as manufacturing costs and the international trade environment, still have not undergone fundamental changes. The new crown epidemic will also have an important impact on the layout of the international textile supply chain. The trend of more vertical and decentralized industrial chain and supply chain distribution is expected to be unavoidable. China's textile industry participates in the international industrial division of labor and resource allocation system under the "dual cycle" pattern. The path of construction will inevitably be further adjusted. In general, for orders transferred from South Asia, on the one hand, we must ensure product quality, provide good customer service, and maintain good reputation; on the other hand, we must also objectively understand that short-term order backflow does not represent the long-term development trend. Promoting transformation and upgrading, continuously improving labor productivity, resource allocation efficiency, independent innovation capabilities, and steadily optimizing the division of labor status in the international industrial chain and supply chain are still the fundamental development direction of China's textile industry.