Increasing MMF imports badly hurting Indian textile industry

The continuous increase in the imports of man-made fibres (MMF), especially in the aftermath of GST implementation, is significantly hurting country’s textile sector.

However, there is a substantial rise in imports of MMF yarn and apparels at 83 and 84 per cent (July 16/June 17 to July 18/June 19 period), respectively.

MMF is an important segment of the Indian textile and clothing industry and it has made substantial investment to enhance its capacity building to meet the desired target of US $ 350 billion market by 2025.

Sanjay Jain, Chairman, CITI, has attributed this rise to removal of countervailing duty (CVD) post GST, which overnight made imports 12% + cheaper.

The import duty on fabrics and apparels was subsequently increased by the Government to control imports, hence the imports of fabrics have been relatively under control, but garments due to FTAs could not be controlled by this measure.

India’s imports of man-made textiles (in US $ Mn.)

Data source: CITI analysis based on DGCI&S data.

Sanjay also highlighted that the polyester-based products have the highest share in Indian MMF Textiles. Imports of polyester yarn in India have increased by a CAGR of about 13 per cent since 2014-15 to reach US $ 95 million in 2018-19. Indonesia is the biggest supplier of polyester yarn to India and imports from there have increased exponentially at a CAGR of 59 per cent during the same period.

India’s annual imports of polyester yarn (US $ Mn)