Basic textiles comprising fibres, spun and filament yarns shipment jumped 35% YoY in January 2020, both in terms of US$ and INR worth US$869 million or INR6,098 crore, accounting for about 3.3% of total merchandise exported from India during the month. A year ago, the same group of basic textiles had accounted over 2.4% of total merchandised export. In January 2019, exports had declined sharply by24% in US$ term and by 16% in INR term. Hence, the sharp growth in January 2020, is from a very low base. Meanwhile, the INR to an US$ slightly weakened to average INR70.17 this January from INR70.02 last year.
Cotton Export
December is usually the peak month for cotton export but shipment was the lowest for the month since 2016. It appears that the shipment rolled over into January, with 13.50 lakh bales exported during the month. This takes the total export to 26.8 lakh bales worth US$US$728 million in the first four months of 2019-20 marketing season. This was still lower than the 32.1 lakh bales shipped in the same months of previous season. Bangladesh was the largest market for Indian cotton export, followed by China, Indonesia and Vietnam. No shipment was shipped to Pakistan this month, which had imported 56 thousand bales in January 2019.
The average price realisation works out at INR113 a kg or US cents 73.01 per pound. This was lower compared to Cotlook A index, the global spot price benchmark for cotton and higher than Gujarat Shankar-6, the benchmark for domestic spot price. During the month, Cotlook averaged US$78.74 per pound and Shankar-6 US cents 71.55 per pound.
Yarn Export
Spun yarns shipment totaled 132 million kg (up 37% YoY)) worth US$362 million (up 29.5%) or INR2,540 crore (up 30%). The unit value realization of all types of spun yarn averaged US$2.75 per kg, lower by US cents 16 from a year ago but up US cents 4 from previous month. Bangladesh was the largest market for spun yarns, topping both in terms of volume and value, and rising year on year.
Cotton yarn export was 108 million kg worth US$300 million (INR2,110 crore), up 29% from a year ago level. 77 countries imported cotton yarn from India in January at an average price of US$2.79 a kg, up US cents 4 from previous month but down US cents 17 from a year ago.China re-emerged as the top cotton yarn market, as it raised its import 15% by volume and 11% by value this January. During the month, export to China was 31 million kg worth US$73 million.
Bangladesh followed China with volume and value surging 46% and 36% respectively, year on year. Egypt and Portugal were the other major export market for cotton yarn during the month, with former recording 48% increase in value and latter jumping 64%. 11 countries did not import any cotton yarn from India this January as they had imported yarn worth US$5.8 million worth in January 2019.
No shipment was reported for Pakistan this month. Last year, export to Pakistan was 1.35 million kg worth US$5.30 million. However, the lost markets were replaced by 21 others which imported yarn worth US$5.20 million. Oman and Argentina were the major new market this January to last year. Iran, Nepal, Israel, Brazil and Taiwan were among top fastest major importers of cotton yarn in January, while Madagascar significantly reduced its imports compared to last year.
100% man-made fibre yarns exports jumped further 26% in January extending the rally seen since November. They comprised 3 million kg of viscose yarn, 3.3 million kg of polyester yarn and 1.6 million kg of acrylic yarn. The rise was led by viscose yarn, which more than doubled in terms of volume and up 70% in value.
Viscose yarn worth US$8.4 million or INR58.6 crore was exported at an average price of US$2.81 per kg in January to 32 countries. Of these Bangladesh, Turkey and Belgium were the major markets. Export to Bangladesh was worth US$1.82 million, followed by Turkey at US$1.29 million and Belgium worth US$1.17 million. Iran was the fourth largest importer of viscose yarn during January.
Polyester spun yarns export was worth US$7.18 million and were exported to 42 countries at average unit price of US$2.16 a kg, down US cents 20 from last year. Turkey remained as the largest importer of polyester yarn, followed by Morocco and USA.
Blended spun yarns worth US$41 million were exported in January, up 35% YoY. During the month, 10.3 million kg of PC yarns was exported worth US$24 million while 3.8 million kg of PV yarns were exported worth US$9.60 million. Egypt was the largest importers of PC yarn from India followed by Colombia. Turkey was the single largest importer of PV yarns from India followed distantly by Brazil.
All kinds of filament yarns shipment totaled 69.6 million kg (up 36% YoY), valued at US$103 million (up 16% YoY). But the jump largely reflected the 23% decline recorded in January 2019. Only viscose filament yarn exports were sluggish while others recorded sharp increases up in value terms with significant increases.
