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Five more textile mills down shutter in Surat
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SURAT: The textile processing sector in the country's biggest man-made fabric hub in Surat is on the verge of collapse. Five more textile dyeing and printing mills in Pandesara and Khatodara areas have closed down in the past few days taking the total number of closed mills to 35.
The poor condition of textile processing sector is on an account of a sharp increase of about 10 to 15 per cent in the raw material prices such as chemical and dyes and other input cost like electricity, natural gas, coal, the unavailability of skilled textile labourers due to NAREGA scheme and the dwindling demand of polyester fabrics from the domestic and international markets.
Surat's textile sector contributes to roughly 40 per cent of the finished fabric demand in the country.
Industry sources said there is another bad news awaiting the textile processors. The prices of dyes and colour — main raw material in the dyeing and printing of fabrics — are likely to increase by 8-9 per cent in the first week of August. The reasons are the weakening rupee against the dollar, increase in the imported raw material and increasing crude oil prices.
Pramod Chaudhary, chairman, South Gujarat Textile Processors Association (SGTPA) said, "The processing sector is dying a slow death and if this situation continues, at least 20 to 25 mills will close down in the next few months."
Vishal Budhia, chairman of SGTPA's gas committee who also owns a textile processing unit in Sachin said, "The textile mills will get some succour if the price of natural gas is brought down to a reasonable level. In the past 18 months, the price has gone up by almost 200 per cent from Rs 11.5 per standard cubic metre to Rs 29.80." Meanwhile, the city's textile processors have unanimously decided to increase the job charges for the dyeing and printing of fabrics between 50 paise to Re 1 per metre from August 1. Following the hike in job charges, the textile traders will have a price burden of Rs 2.50 crore per day as about 2.5 crore metre of fabrics is dyed and printed in the 400-odd textile processing units in the city.
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