Textile mills in the Tamil Nadu are expected to go slow in cotton purchase and consumption till the end of the current quarter (October – December) as demand is down in the international market for textile and clothing products.
Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) recently conducted a survey among 132 textile mills in the State. The mills totally have 61 lakh spindles. These units consumed 15.37 lakh bales of cotton between October and December this year. However, these units expected to consume only 10.56 lakh bales between October and December this year.
The average capacity utilisation in the mills in the State that consumed cotton was 50%. According to the survey, 74% of the mills had reduced capacity utilisation voluntarily due to low demand. Almost 6% had shifted fully to man-made fibre and 11% had increased use of man-made fibre with cotton.
Prabhu Dhamodharan, convenor of ITF, said textile mills in the State, one of the largest cotton yarn producer in the country, are expected to consume 10 lakh bales cotton less these three months compared to the same period last year. The demand for MMF products is relatively better and capacity utilisation in textile mills that consume MMF is higher at 71%.
With regard to cotton textile goods, international buyers say sale of clothing for Christmas is picking up and if the inventory is exhausted, demand will revive during the last quarter of this financial year. Hence, production here is expected to revive again in the last quarter. However, for this quarter, demand remains low and thus, demand for cotton is also expected to remain less, he added.
