The man-made fibre industry has started to breathe easy with prices of most varieties of MMF improving over the past few months. Domestic viscose filament yarn (VFY) prices have been climbing up since June this year till now.
The price of 20 denier nylon filament yarn (NFY) also firmed up for the sixth consecutive month in August. Polyester filament yarn (PFY) and polyester staple fibre (PSF) prices have also risen in the last few months.
According to a study by Industry Analysis Service (IAS), a division of CMIE, VFY has not only been witnessing a decline in production, there has been a converse price rise as well. VFY production declined in May 2002 to 4335 tonnes.
On the other hand, prices of all varieties of VFY went up in August, except standard viscose fibre (SVF), which remained steady. VFY 100-d prices recorded sharpest rise ranging from Rs 10-16 per kilogram. This has resulted in a rise of 22-50 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Prices of VFY varieities which ranged from Rs 177-248 per kilogram in August 2001, shot up to Rs 218-314 per kilogram in August 2002.
The IAS report pointed out that PFY production has been rising at the rate of about 8.5 per cent till May end. According to figures available for April-May 2002, the cumulative PFY production was 1,59,220 tonnes, up 10.3 per cent over April-May 2001.
Prices also improved marginally in August 2002 compared to August 2001. The prices of major varieties of PFY which ranged between Rs 83-250, improved this year to Rs 87-252.
Production of nylon filament yarn (NFY) recorded a growth of about 25.9 per cent growth in April-May 2002, to 5132 tonnes. Although domestic production improved, imports have been falling by about 34.9 per cent. However, exports of NFY fell by 26.7 per cent during these months.
However, the prices of 20-d NFY jumped 6.7 per cent in August 2002 at Rs 228 per kilogram over August 2001. Prices of 44-d/40-d remained stable at Rs 172 per kilogram.
Partially oriented yarn (POY) prices recorded an increase of 3.1 per cent in August 2002 at Rs 64.2 from Rs 60, a year earlier. Similarly the prices of polyester staple fibre (PSF) has also been on the rise. PSF prices which ruled at Rs 49.75 a year ago have moved up to Rs 54.25 in August 2002.
