Indian apparel exports continue to slide in October

Releasing the export data for the month of October 2012 for the apparel exports in India, Dr. A Sakthivel, Chairman AEPC, stated that, “Apparel exports for the month of October 2012 were to the tune of USD 907 million, with decline of 0.75 percent against the corresponding month of last financial year. In rupee terms, the exports have increased by 6.83 percent in October 2012-13 over the same month of previous FY.”  

 

Export in dollar terms for first seven months of the FY 2012-13 has declined by 9.1 percent over the same period of previous FY and reached to USD 7133 million. However, in rupee terms, exports increased by 7.98 percent compared to same period of last FY. In April-October 2012-13, in rupee terms, India’s apparel exports were to the tune of Rs. 38826 crore compared to Rs. 35956 crore in April-October 2011-12, he added.

 

In the FY 2011-12, garment exports in dollar terms increased by 17.9 percent from previous FY and totaled USD 13699 million in April-March 2011-12.

 

Commenting on the decline in the exports Dr. Sakthivel said, “Buyers are not putting more orders due to the economic turbulence in their economy specifically in Western Europe, USA and Canada. Besides, the economic turbulence there is a stiff competition from Vietnam and Bangladesh in US market and from Turkey in EU market, respectively. Most of the share of India is bitten by these suppliers. There is news that China is losing market share in these markets, but we need to focus to grab the market share lost from China. Moreover, increasing wage rates, hike in oil prices and input costs are other causes of worry as they dent profit of the exporters.”

On the apparel imports of the United States, Chairman AEPC informed that, “US witnessed decline of -2.07 percent in Jan-Sep. 2012 from the corresponding period of previous year and amounted to 59 billion dollars. For the same period, US imports of apparel from India declined by 11 percent and reached USD 2420 million in Jan-Sep. 2012 against USD 2727 million in Jan-Sep. 2011.  US imports saw almost decline from all major suppliers in Jan-Sep. 2012 over the corresponding period of last year except for Vietnam.”  In the month of Sep. 2012 India reaches 8th position overtaken by Honduras and Cambodia which exported around US$ 238 million and US$ 234 million worth of apparels to USA in Sep. 2012, respectively. In comparison, India exported US$ 207 million worth of apparels in Sep. 2012 with decline of 16.57 percent over the same month of previous year, Chairman added.

 Dr Sakthivel remarked that EU’s apparel import accounted for USD 64.3 billion for the Jan-Sep. 2012 with a decline of 14 percent over the same period of previous year. India’s export to EU for the same period in 2012 amounted to USD 4.1billion with a decline of 23.6 per cent. For the period Jan.-Sep. 2012 none of the top apparel suppliers registered an increase in apparel export to EU. In the month of September 2012 compared to same month of last year, among top 4 suppliers except for Turkey rest of the top 3 partners registered decline in the import by EU. Highest fall in import has been registered by India followed by China.