The Hindu Business Line : Testing times ahead

Having established itself as an efficient suppliers of cotton knitted apparels, Tirupur knitwear sector's competitiveness in terms of costs may see some acid tests, maybe in the coming months.

China, the global heavyweight in knitwear items, which will be past its quota restriction by 2008, is seen to impact on exports from Tirupur. Though many of the Tirupur exporters are conscious of this, they are confident that Tirupur's ability in meeting quicker deliveries of shipments and small volume fashion garment order bookings will come to their rescue, irrespective of the China factor.

Garment exporters in the know of things say the industry's current export growth rate of 25-30 per cent may last till 2008. Even after China gaining quota-free entry in the world market by then, Tirupur will comfortably maintain a 10 per cent annual growth rate.

Infrastructure lacunae

But to sustain the export competitiveness of the cluster, some key infrastructure lacunae in areas like supplementing the labour in numbers and skill upgradation, enhancing energy efficiency, improved road connectivity between the cluster and Tuticorin must be addressed at the earliest.

Similarly, another important area of concern for the exporters having cost ramification is the environmental issues over treating its trade effluents. The latter issue, if not adequately addressed, will be potent enough to upset the long-term efficiency of Tirupur garment value chain.

On the labour front, Tirupur faces acute shortage of labour and labour dwellings, yet to find a good quality direct road link between Tirupur and Tuticorin. The knitwear industrial bodies along with Apparel Export Promotion Council's apparel training and design centre (ATDC) have identified the gaps in skill development and have suggested to the Tamil Nadu government to identify 50 industrial training institutes in the state for exclusive manpower training for the textile sector.

Tirupur requires immediately about 20,000 skilled labour . The desired numbers in these categories are not forthcoming, according to Mr.Sridhar, administrative head at ATDC, Tirupur.

The capacity enhancement and induction of high productive machinery have led to higher energy consumption. The projected 30 per cent annual growth rate in exports can be manageable if only the industry manages to keep its labour and energy costs competitive, says Mr R. Sivaram, Executive Director of Royal Classic group.

More Stories on : Knitwear & Hosiery | Tamil Nadu | Textiles

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