Kolkata, India (BBN)- Indian apparel exporters will savour a sweet time soon with the disruption in production in Bangladesh due to political turmoil and the rising cost of garment produce in China.
Orders are being diverted to India from these nations for high-value garments, which is likely to help the Indian apparel exports that has clocked a 13.4% growth in dollar terms in April-February of FY15.
Talking to the ECONOMIC TIMES (ET), DK Nair, secretary general of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) said: "The apparel exports have shown an encouraging growth in the current fiscal. The political turmoil as well as safety and security issues in Bangladesh have emerged as a major problem for the garment industry there."
Some of the global buyers of Bangladesh are now showing interest to purchase gar ments from India. The United States' (US) demand is also showing recovery though demand from the European Union (EU) n still remains muted.
Garment exports stood at $1,538 million in February with an increase of 8.7% against the corresponding month in 2014.
India's garment export to the global markets for the period April-February of FY15 was $15,262 million -up by 13.4% from t $13,456 million during the same period of d previous financial year.
HKL Magu, managing director (MD), Jyon ti Apparels said the major reason in growth in exports is due to rising cost of producing n high-value garments in China.
"Increase in wages in China is killing the garment industry there. All the international brands are now working with Indian o apparel exporters. Bangladesh produces cheaper low-value garments and we cannot compete with them in a big way. But definitely, Indian exporters can leverage the higher cost of production in China," he said. However, Magu pointed out that globe al buyers are delaying shipments as they are not keen to create an inventory now.
"They have placed orders but are delaying the consignments, which have impacted a our exports in January and February. The y same trend is continuing in March as well. So overall, the exports may grow by 12% in h the current fiscal."
BBN/SSR/AD-20Mar15-3:33 pm (BST)