China has emerged as the leading source of India's textile imports in the last five years as the volume of textile imports has risen to $548.81 million in 2004-05 from $78.71 million in 2000-01, industry body Assocham said on Wednesday.
Out of India's total textile imports at $597.74 million in 2000-01, China's share was $78.71 million.
This further rose by 597.26 per cent to $548.81 million in 2004-05 as India's total textile imports touched $1.502 billion, it said in a release.
In percentage terms, India's textile imports from China in 2000-01 were 13.17 per cent of total global textile imports. This tripled to 36.53 per cent in 2004-05, the chamber said in a study on 'Post ATC Competitiveness and Protectionism.'
"Chinese textile imports to India rose because their prices internationally witnessed a downtrend in the period which ushered cut-throat competition among all leading economies of textile products. China survived because of its higher production of textile products with lower prices," Assocham president Anil K Agarwal said.
While India's imports are rising, textile exports in the post-quota regime have dipped by 10.1 per cent to $4.7 billion during January-September 2005. Exports of readymade garments also fell by 1.8 per cent to $5 billion, the chamber said.
The exports of textile and readymade garments to the European Union, which accounts for 35.3 per cent of total exports, rose by a meagre 3.7 per cent to $3.4 billion during January-September 2005. During January-June 2005, India's textile exports to the United States increased by 24.2 per cent.
The textile sector though, fared well during the first half 2005-06 as the weighted production index went up by 10.3 per cent as compared to 6.5 per cent during the corresponding period last year.
Even the investments in the sector till October 2005, went up by a massive 109.3 per cent to Rs 14,186 crore (Rs 141.86 billion) as compared to Rs 6,779 crore (Rs 67.79 billion) in the same period in 2004.
The study points out that India's inherent strengths, which can be capitalized upon are strong raw material base of cotton, man-made fibres, jute, silk, large production capacity, availability of skilled manpower, entrepreneurship, flexibility in production process.
The sector is not without its weakness though, including fragmented industry, constraint of processing, quality of cotton, concern over power cost, infrastructure constraints and labour reforms.
