Cold wave leaves Surat's textile industry sneezing

Winter boosts woolen sales while synthetics take a beating.

Surat is feeling the heat of the cold wave, which is threatening to freeze the Rs 25,000-crore synthetic fabric market. The dipping mercury has left sales of synthetic fabric plummeting by around 40 per cent in the last one month.

With consumers turning to woolens even after mid-January, there is a visible slowdown in the offtake of synthetic fabrics. Industry sources peg the loss as a result of this fall to around Rs 500 crore.

What's more, industry players fear more losses if the cold wave continues for some more days as woolens will continue to find favour with buyers.

Normally, with the marriage and festive season round the corner, offtake of synthetic fabrics such as sarees and dress material starts picking up after mid-January. However, extended winter has seen a spurt in sales of woolen clothes even in January, which has forced traders in northern India to shift their focus on woolen clothes.

"For the first time there is no demand of synthetic fabric in the months of January and February. Whatever demand was witnessed in the last month subsided in February in the wake of unabated cold wave," Indian Art Silk and weaving Industry chairman Arun Jhariwala told Business Standard.

Though Surat supplies synthetic fabrics to the entire country, the Northern region accounts for more than 50 per cent of its total sales.

After January, traders especially from Delhi, Punjab and other key northern states start buying synthetic fabrics from Surat. However, textile traders in these regions have stopped purchases following poor offtake of the products.

"The cold has hampered the demand-supply chain and textile traders in Surat are suffering business losses everyday," said Devkishan Mangani, acting president, Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association.

Not just traders, units involved in weaving, processing and dying are also feeling the heat of the cold wave. Earlier, weaving units never had to stock fabrics.

But, this year 5-10 days stock has piled up with them. Same is the case with processing and dying units as they are not getting orders, said Mahendra Kajiwal, former president, South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Of the Rs 50,000-crore country's synthetic fabric market, Surat's share is 50 per cent. The city has around 650,000 looms and 40,000 merchant manufacturers. It produces 300,000 metre synthetic fabric a day and provides employment to around 1 million labourers.