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India clocked the highest-ever overall textile and apparel exports (US $ 44.40 billion) in FY ’22 with a whopping increase of 30.37 per cent in RMG export figures (US $ 16.02 billion) in FY ’22. The export of cotton and man-made textiles amounted to US $ 23.5 billion indicating 67 per cent and 51 per cent growth, respectively, over FY ’21. Interestingly, this growth has not only resulted in export boost but also in substantial demand in the Indian domestic market.

However, was it a simple story of only demand-growth? Maybe yes, but other factors also joined in to pull this growth.  Indian textile mills walked that extra mile to feed this demand with some important value additions – be it expanding their product offerings or adding value to already-existing products or focusing on sustainability.

Take the example of Amarjothi Spinning Mills, Tirupur, which completed three decades in the fabric business. The strength of Amarjothi has always been melange yarn and the company has already set good standard in quality and prices. Looking at the volatile market conditions, the company expanded its portfolio of price-effective products.

“Melange yarn is a value addition yarn and further drop in its prices made us feel the heat in business. Therefore, we expanded our product category to cotton with recycled polyester. We are closely working with the price sensitivity of the market and offering a good range of  price-effective products in the domestic market,” said Rajan Premchander, MD of the company.

The company has not only developed melange yarn but has taken the offerings to the next level by introducing Livaeco viscose, 100 per cent Tensil anti-microbial polyester/PC blend/Tri-blend, Multicolour blended yarns, Multicolour fancy injection, Multicolour grindle, Tensil/Viscose blended yarns, Cotton/Bamboo blended yarns, Cotton/Modal, Cotton/Silk, Cotton/Recycled Polyester. “There would be an increase in the requirement once cotton and other factors get settled,” Rajan predicts.

Vertical integrated prestigious company Ginni Filaments Ltd., Noida has also worked to enhance its product basket, with advanced infrastructure. The company offers a complete range of knitted fabrics. With 20,000 spindles, the company started offering 100 per cent super combed compact yarns for knitting and weaving too. With this initiative, the company now has gained better control on quality and cost.

In the words of Shailendra Jain, GM-Fabric of the company, “The compact yarn-based products are more in demand as more and more clients are turning to this solution. Therefore, we decided to focus on this segment.”

Textile industry is believed to be one of the most polluting and resource-sensitive industries. Let’s take the example of the major textile hub of India, Tirupur where 700 tonnes of cotton yarn are used every day as opposed to an annual usage of 2,000 tonnes of other man-made fibres. However, the good news is that the Indian textile industry is waking up to turn to sustainable solutions, especially during last two years and with increasing cost of cotton, which is barring them from retaining price-competitiveness in the export markets.

Mumbai-based Perfect Filaments, a three-decades-old company known for polyester texturing yarn manufacturing, recently forayed into sustainable textiles such as GRS-certified recycled yarns and CiClo-certified Biodegradable yarns and is doing pretty good in this.

Rajendra Gupta, MD, Perfect Filaments, explained further, “From being in the business of value-added products in texturised yarn, I can say that demand is always good. But at times there are lean phases, for which, we put extra efforts in R&D and strive to always come up with more interesting products.” Perfect Filaments is one of the well-known names which can afford to cover raw materials in rising markets and the company is vertically integrated from chips to texturised yarn with doping facility on 100 per cent POY lines and special double-density DTY Machines.

KG Fabriks Limited, Coimbatore, on the other hand, is one of India’s best sustainable denim fabric manufacturers. The company continuously focuses on sustainability and new developments. Besides the innovations regarding sustainability, the company has also adopted a digital-only new-age approach/presentation for clients (www.digitaldenim.in/kgfabriks – one can view the digital images of their entire range of over 6,000 products in a hanger form, garment form and draped on a model form too).

The company is a signatory to Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s Jean Redesign programme and developed an exclusive range of qualities in accordance with their guidelines. It is also a partner in Inditex’s Join Life programme and has a diverse portfolio of products in its Green Denim range using sustainable fibres with GOTS and OCS organic certificates, pre- and post-consumer waste recycled denims with GRS and RCS certificates. It is also India’s first GreenCo and GreenPro company in denim fabric manufacturing, which certifies that its production processes are sustainable.

Proud of these initiatives, Srihari Balakrishnan, MD of the company said, “Difficult market scenario has definitely affected us in turning the margins tighter. However, I still believe that the denim industry will witness around 10 per cent growth in this financial year.”

Although hopeful about domestic markets, these fabric giants, which have equalised direct export and business growth for years, are still banking on exports despite current scenario. For many of these companies, export means not only large revenue but also a tool for survival. Given the growth in garment business in various countries, they are hopeful about larger export opportunities in near future.

Amarjothi Spinning Mills relies on direct export to countries like Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam. It has been constantly expanding its hold in these markets with yarn and fabrics for years. In addition, it also offers ready-to-cut knit fabrics to the Island through its associate company Texin India to major customers specified in the fabric segment.

KG Fabriks is also positive about direct exports as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh continue to be its major markets. Vietnam and Indonesia will be its focus markets in the near future.

The international scenario in India’s favour is another reason for the optimism. Rajendra Gupta said, “The focus of the West to reduce dependence on China is helping the Indian manufacturers. We expect the coming seasons will bring further positive demands.”

Shailendra also reflected that observation and said that Sri Lanka’s business is shifting to India, in this scenario. He also added that Bangladesh and Turkey may also face challenges in future turning all heads to India.

Other developments relating to China are also indicating that India will emerge as an export hub.

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