Indian textile export industry affected due to Coronavirus outbreak in China

The Coronavirus breakout has affected the Indian textile export industry the most among other affected industries in India. Indian industries have been facing the impact of travel and export-import restrictions imposed due to the outbreak of the deadly novel Coronavirus in China.

While interacting with a news agency, K V Srinivasan, Chairman of Cotton Yarn textile exports promotion council said, "Coronavirus was unexpected. We are yet to judge the full extent of the problem as the Chinese markets were closed for the Chinese New Year. They were supposed to have had opened now during this week. The latest information we got is that they have been asked to close for another 10 days."

"We are also trying to understand the full implication of the coronavirus in the industrial activity in China because people are saying that a lot of factories have closed down," the Chairman added.

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'Scope of receiving more orders from foreign countries is high': Chairman 

China is one of the key markets for the Indian textile industry, mainly for raw cotton and yarn. When it comes to Cotton Yarn, India's monthly export is around 90 million kg. 30 per cent of the export mainly goes to the People's Republic of China. KV Srinivasan also spoke about Indian textile exports being re-exported by China as finished goods to the US. "With the coronavirus scare affecting the trade between US and China, India's export industry has also been affected," he said.

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Adding further to his statement, he also stated that the forecast for the textile export industry is 'not very optimistic.' "If the virus is going to affect the industrial activity in China then definitely our textile exports will take a beating. However, in next two to three weeks, we will know the extent of impact and if it continues for a very long period then there will be a very big implication on the Indian textile industry as we depend a lot on the exports to China," Srinivasan said.

As per the Chairman, in the current scenario, the scope of the Indian textile industry getting more business from foreign countries is very high. 

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(With inputs from ANI)