According to S. Jagadesh Chandran, secretary of the South India Spinners Association, about 1,500 small- to medium-sized textile and open-end spinning mills in Tamil Nadu have chosen to limit production to 50% of capacity as of Monday.
Mr. Chandran, along with G. Subramaniam, president of the Indian Spinning Mill Owners’ Association, Jayabal, president of the Recycle Textile Federation, and G. Arulmozhi, president of the Open-End Spinning Mills Association, told presspersons present that the price of yarn made in Tamil Nadu had increased by almost 20 per kg over the previous six months due to high electricity and bank interest costs. According to Mr. Subramaniam, a significant amount of yarn and fabric are imported from Bangladesh, including yarn made in China.
“We have made every effort to reduce production costs. But, a mill with 10,000 spindles incurs Rs.10 lakh loss a month,” said Mr. Chandran. The situation has turned worse in the last six months. The imported yarn is cheaper than that produced in Tamil Nadu by Rs.5 – Rs.10 a kg, he added.
There are containers with imported yarn and fabric in Tiruppur and Somanur. The mills do not have much yarn stock because they are selling at a loss to meet the fixed costs, the mill owners said.
