Cheap Chinese fabric cripples Surat textile units

Surat: The Chinese dragon seems to have paralysed the country's largest man-made fabric (MMF) sector in the city with dumping of finished fabrics at throw-away prices.
The weaving sector is facing the worst-ever crisis with over 50% of the powerloom machines shutting down in the last one month, rendering thousands of workers jobless.
Textile entrepreneurs claimed that the dumping of the crores of meters of under invoiced finished fabric imported from China at the cheap rates of Rs 7 to Rs 8 per meter is the main reason behind the crisis.The production cost of finished fabric in the local market begins from Rs 50 per meter and goes upto Rs 500 per meter depending on the quality.
Out of the 6.5 lakh powerloom machines, around 4 lakh machines have come to a grinding halt as the demand for fabrics in the domestic market has drastically reduced following dumping of the cheap imported fabrics from China.
Surat weaves around 4 crore meters of fabric per day. It caters to around 45% of the MMF fabric demand in the country.
Industry sources said that the powerloom sector is facing one of the never seen before situation in the last two decades. The godowns are stacked up with grey fabrics as there are no takers in the market.
Industry leaders on Tuesday called upon chief minister Anandiben Patel to urge her to take up the issue of imported fabric being dumped in the country by China with the central government and safeguard the interest of the textile industry in the state.
Managing director of Fairdeal Filaments limited, Dhirubhai Shah told TOI, "Crores of meters of finished fabric is imported from China everyday. This finished fabric is cheaper than the fabric manufactured in Surat. Thus, the demand for Surti polyester fabric has decreased drastically."
Shah added, "Over 50% of the weaving units in the city are closed. If this will continue for long then the industry will be in a dire crisis. We have represented the issue with the CM."
President of the Katargam-Ved Road Weavers Association, Devesh Patel told TOI, "Around 70% of the weaving units in Katargam, Ved Road and Varachha have been shut since last 20 days. The weavers are contemplating to extend the shut-down till the end of May in order to deal with the over-production." He said that most of the textile workers have not returned after the Holi, whereas many have left for their hometowns.