The apparel industry has entered the festive season on a positive note, with 52% of the Cloth Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) members expecting higher sales than last year. However, there are also concerns among the apparel manufacturers in Tiruppur about rising garment imports from China.

According to a recent survey done by the CMAI among its members, numbering close to 7,000 and including major retailers and brands, close to 30% of the respondents expect the sales this year to match last year’s performance. Just less than 20% expect a decline.

Former president and chief mentor of the CMAI Rahul Mehta told The Hindu that in a prelude to the Deepavali season, the eastern States did well for dussehra sales. However, sales in the southern districts for the Navarathri festival was slow and it was sluggish in the north and west. “Despite the textile inflation of 5% to 7%, we think the festival season this year will be better than last year. Raw material prices have started coming down and the global geo political situation is not as bad as it was a few months ago. The sales are expected to pick up across the country closer to Deepavali,” he said.

The CMAI said in a statement that strong order bookings by retailers at the CMAI’s National Garment Fairs (NGFs) have further reinforced the industry confidence. While rising raw-material costs remain a concern among the retailers, around 54 % of the respondents said they were absorbing the costs by reducing margins and only about 35 % have increased the prices. “This indicates that higher festive sales could come with continued pressure on profitability,” the CMAI said.

Indian wear is expected to lead the festive-season growth followed by western casual wear. Online apparel sales are also expected to gain momentum this year.

Meanwhile, according to R. Dhamodharan, secretary of the South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association, “Import of cotton readymade garments from China during April-August this year was worth ₹508.64 crore as against ₹283.65 crore for the same period last year. Several traders are placing orders in China and importing garments now.”

Further, distributors and consumers may not absorb price increase now. “So, the manufacturers (in Tiruppur) are looking at revising the prices after the festival,” he said.

The South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA) and the Tirupur Domestic Garments Manufacturers Association (TIDGMA) will, in January next year, organise an exhibition of garments made in Tiruppur for the domestic market.

Apart from garments made for exports, Tiruppur produces T-shirts, inner wear, and apparel worth over ₹40,000 crore every year for the Indian market and several leading brands source garments from Tiruppur.

R. Dhamodharan, secretary of the SIHMA, said the SIHMA has nearly 675 manufacturers of garments and inner wear for the Indian market and the TIDGMA has 350 to 400 manufacturers of apparels. These producers make garments and inner wear for summer and winter. “We plan to hold two fairs annually – one in Tiruppur for summer wear and another in a north Indian city for winter wear. Tiruppur garment makers produce winter wear such as thermal wear, hoodies, and so on, apart from T-shirts and basic garments,” he said.

The logo for the event was released and stall registration began on October 9 at a meeting headed by P. Shanmugasundaram, president of the SIHMA, and M.K.M. Balasubramaniam, president of the TIDGMA.

The event, to be held at the India Knit Fair complex from January 3 to 5, will have nearly 115 stalls.

“We plan to invite retail chains, distributors, white label buyers, corporate buyers, and uniform producers to this business event,” he added.s

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With cotton and yarn prices continuing to fluctuate, textile mills and garment units in Tamil Nadu are seeking measures to improve cotton productivity and availability.

Spurt in demand for cotton yarn globally is among the main reasons for volatility in its prices, said Ashwin Chandran, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry.

International demand for yarn is better than the last couple of years. Demand for cotton yarn was muted since 2023-24. Demand for textile products across the value chain started picking up last December. Most of the textile units maintained hand-to-mouth stocks for the last years because of the low demand.

Demand for yarn from China and Bangladesh saw an increase and domestic demand for garments is also seeing growth. This has led to better market for yarn. Further, hosiery yarn exports are mainly by the mills in Gujarat and not much from those in Tamil Nadu.

However, the cotton futures market went up to 92 cents for a pound and has corrected now to about 86 cents. Thus, the prices of cotton, the basic raw material, saw prices fluctuating. While the landed prices of clean cotton has seen ₹70 increase, yarn prices have increased by about ₹95 a kg in the last one year, he said.

The focus of the entire industry should be on improving cotton productivity in the country for raw material security, he added.

Meanwhile, the Tiruppur Exporters and Manufacturers Association has urged the Central and State governments to ban cotton exports. It said the State, especially the western districts, design and manufactures a wide range of textile products and supply to both, domestic and international markets.

This industry, predominantly driven by small and medium-sized enterprises, provides employment and livelihoods to thousands of people. However, since January this year, certain large spinning mills and traders “have been artificially restricting the supply of cotton, causing yarn prices to skyrocket and creating an unprecedented crisis for local manufacturing units—particularly the small and medium-sized ones,” alleged the Association.

Last year, cotton requirement was 350 lakh bales, whereas current domestic production stands at 290 lakh bales. With the existing cotton shortage, the government removed the import duty (11%) on cotton and 62 lakh bales of cotton were imported. Yet, cotton prices continue to rise.

This is due to artificial market manipulation, the Association claimed. The continuous rise in cotton prices have increased raw material costs, causing garment orders to be diverted to other States and countries, it said.

Indian garment exporters are hoping for tariff-rate quota, which countries such as the Bangladesh have got, from Washington as India is also a major buyer of U.S. cotton.

Officials in a couple of textile and apparel export promotion councils told The Hindu on Wednesday that the Indian government is trying to negotiate with the U.S. for tariff concession for garments that are made with U.S. cotton and are exported to that country. “Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia will not be charged the additional 10% tariff by America for garments that have U.S. cotton. However, this is a quota-based concession and will not apply for all garments exported by Bangladesh to the U.S. Australia offers India similar concessions,” said one of the officials. Further, India is talking to the U.S. for a bilateral trade agreement too.

India imports substantial quantity of American cotton and hence, the garment exporters have asked for tariff-rate quota for India too. While Indian exporters are at a disadvantage because of this concession to some of the competing countries, it may not affect India much because it is quota-based, they said.  

The threat of higher tariff on India because of its oil imports from Russia is another threat for the exporters now.

The officials said the U.S. is an important trading partner for India and its total garment imports are worth $80 billion. However, EU is also a major market, importing close to $ 120 billion worth garments. If India is able to expand deeper into the EU market, the garment exporters will have an alternative market to supply to, they added.

With the U.S. tariffs hitting hard, apparel and textile exports saw a 12.91% slump in October compared with last October.

While textile shipments last month were worth $1,597 million, apparel exports were $1,069.42 million, as against $1,833 million (textiles) and $1,227 million (apparel) in October 2024.

Exports of jute and carpets dropped 27.27% and 15.8% respectively, and cotton yarn, fabrics, and made-ups went down 13.31%.

“Many buyers in the U.S. who were placing orders with us regularly are still doing so. But, we are supplying at heavy discounts,” said A. Sakthivel, vice chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).

The garment exporters got the spring season orders. But the summer orders are slow. Things may improve with a bilateral trade agreement expected soon and the support measures announced by the Indian government, said Mithileshwar Thankur, secretary general of the AEPC.

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council Executive Director Siddhartha Rajagopal said yarn exports to China did see a slight improvement. But supplies to other markets slumped. Fabric movement is also sluggish. Exporters were earlier front-loading the goods, and hence there was a good movement in August-September. They are offering 15% to 25% discount now to the U.S. buyers. “One season is gone. In markets other than the U.S., the competition is high,” he said.

He urged the Central government to look at the textile industry as one integrated value chain and offer financial support to the entire value chain.

Meanwhile, in a notification issued on Tuesday (November 18, 2025), the Union Ministry of Textiles rescinded the order issued on December 29, 2022, thus removing the Quality Control Order on viscose staple fibres.

Removal of the QCO will strengthen the manmade fibre ecosystem and benefit the industry in the long-run. The tariff issue should be resolved to address the current challenges, said Durai Palanisamy, chairman of the Southern India Mills’ Association.

Viscose staple fibre and several speciality fibres within this order are critical inputs for several value-added garments and made-ups. Revoking the QCO for viscose fibres and polyester yarn and fibres will address the price and availability concerns raised by the users of these raw materials in the MMF segment. This measure will contribute significantly to raising the competitiveness of the Indian textile and apparel sector, said Ashwin Chandran, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry.

The Textile Ministry also said on Tuesday (November 18) that 17 new applications for a cumulative investment of ₹2,374 crore were approved under the Production Linked Incentive Scheme, round three. The proposed projects are expected to achieve projected sales of over ₹12,893 crore and generate employment for about 22,646 persons in the coming years.

The PLI Scheme for Textiles was notified on September 24, 2021, with an approved outlay of ₹10,683 crore to promote the production of MMF apparel and fabrics, and products of technical textiles.