The global economic recession has hit knitwear orders from the US thereby cutting knitwear exports from India by 15%, trade sources said. Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) president A Sakthivel said that the decline of orders from the US has echoed in the European markets too. The demand for Indian knitwear products across Europe declined by 7%, Sakthivel added.
The US imports around 50% of knitwear products produced in apparel units in the Tiurpur belt every year. Tirupur is said to be knitwear capital of India with more than 3,600 knitwear units involved in making different varieties of cotton-based products. The Tirupur region alone accounts for 58% of the India?s total knitwear exports.
?Due to a fall in orders from the US, the overall knitwear exports from Tirupur will decline by 10% this fiscal,? Sakthivel explained.
In 2006-07, the industry suffered due to an appreciation in the value of the rupee that previously ruled below Rs 39 against the US dollar. Though the rupee depreciated and breached the Rs 50-mark in the last week of October, economic recession in the US has dragged down knitwear import commitments as retailers in the US are shutting down, a leading exporter in Tirupur said.
Already knitwear exports from Tirupur for 2007-08 declined to Rs 9,950 crore from Rs 11,000 crore a year ago. Generally, Tirupur has recorded an average annual export growth of 15% since the dismantling of the textile and apparel export quota. In that sense, the 10% negative growth in exports would actually mean a net export loss of 25% in the region, the exporter added.
In fact, the forecast of a 10% fall in knitwear exports in 2008-09 is expected to cut 15,000 – 20,000 technical and non-technical jobs at units across Tirupur.