Textile industry sees no threat from Brexit

The Dollar Business Bureau

Brexit may impact some Indian companies, but domestic textile industry doesn’t see any direct threat from it, according to India ITME Society.

"England is not a big buyer of textile machinery. Textile manufacturing moved away from England long ago to China. So we don't see much impact on Indian textile machinery manufacturing," said Sanjiv Lathia, Chairman of International Textile Machinery Exhibitions (ITME society).

India exported textile items to the UK worth $0.28 billion and to the USA worth $2.30 billion in 2015.

The government has recently announced a new textile policy, in which it plans to generate 1 crore jobs till 2019, while boosting manufacturing as well as exports.

India’s overall textile exports stood at about $4.62 billion in 2015 compared to around $4.61 billion in 2014. Its top five markets were USA, UK, Germany, UAE and Australia.

The textile sector accounts for about 14% to India’s total industrial production; 4% to the country’s GDP; 13% to its total exports earnings.

India’s textile sector provides employment to more than 4.5 crore people. It is one of the largest sources of country’s employment generation. 

According to textile machinery manufacturers' body, India’s is the world’s second largest textile market. It ranks first in loom production capacity and second in spindlage.

“Indian textile and apparel is estimated to reach a market size of $220 billion by 2020, with an 11% annual growth,” the society added.