India, once considered the leader in textile exports to the US, is now lagging behind Bangladesh, China and Vietnam, reveals the data from US Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA). In fact, the country has lost a bigger share of the textile export market pie to Vietnam over the past three years.
Indian textile exporters are increasingly finding it difficult to match lower prices offered by Southeast Asian companies because of relatively higher labour and operating costs. The competition is more intense in the garment segment, which accounts for three-fourth of the total textile exports to the US. The garment segment offers better realisations compared to total textile exports.
According to the data, players in the other regions charge 11-22% lesser per square metre equivalent (SME) of apparels to US buyers when compared with Indian billing rates. For instance, in the first seven months of this year, India earned $3.6 per SME from garment exports to the US. This compares with $2.8 per SME for Bangladesh, $3 per SME for China, and $3.2 for Vietnam.
Cost arbitrage helped Bangladesh, which exports garments to the US at the lowest rates among the four competing nations, to increase its share in dollar terms by 220 basis points (bps) to 6.4% between 2007 and 2011. Vietnam increased its share by 270 bps to 8.7% and China by a whopping 640 bps to 50.6%. In comparison, India's share improved by a meagre 145 bps to 8.4%.
So far in 2011, sales volumes dwindled for China and India, while Bangladesh continued to report a healthy 10% growth in apparel exports to the US. For Vietnam, exports grew at a robust 12.4% during the review period from the year-ago level. This makes it difficult to ascertain the impact of a possible fall in the US consumption due to the current economic uncertainties. What is also intriguing is that per unit rates have increased handsomely for all the four players during the seven months ended July 2011. Except for Vietnam, which saw a single digit growth in garment realisation, other countries reported a double digit jump.
