Indian textile and apparel exports decline for 11 consecutive months

After the gradual decline in cotton prices in India, has there been any improvement in the downstream textile and apparel exports? The latest data shows that India's textile and apparel exports in May decreased by 11.1% compared to the same period last year, marking 11 consecutive months of negative growth. This indicates that the situation of India's textile and apparel exports has not shown significant improvement, yet India has a large domestic market that supports its textile and apparel sales. Despite the poor export performance, the domestic market support makes its domestic sales clearly better than that of Vietnam.

Looking at different categories, the decline in Indian textile products is still greater than that of apparel, especially in the case of cotton textile products, where the decline is more pronounced. Although the decline in export value narrowed in May, both cotton textile products and apparel still experienced double-digit decreases. The decline in chemical fiber products is relatively smaller, and it is expected that the drop will further narrow in the later period.

Looking at the shift from a significant increase to a sharp decline in cotton textile exports, it can be seen that the high cotton prices in India last year did indeed suppress its cotton textile exports. With the decline in cotton prices in India this year, has the demand recovered? Recent data shows that although exports have rebounded from last year's low point, they have not reached the previous highs. This is mainly due to changes in the overseas market environment. The major textile and apparel export markets for India this year, such as the United States, EU countries, and Bangladesh, are facing various issues. Consumer purchasing power in those markets has significantly declined, and countries like Bangladesh in Southeast Asia are facing notable problem of lack of foreign exchanges.

To sum up, the performance of India's textile and apparel exports remains poor based on data of May. Although the decline has narrowed to some extent, there has not been a significant turning point. However, feedback from the middle and upper stream markets indicates that after the decline in cotton prices in India, market orders have increased, but the situation is not stable.