The strong global recovery in yarn and fabrics production that could be observed since their recent lows in the 1st quarter in 2009 came to an end in the 1st quarter of 2010. Both yarn and fabric production dropped significantly compared to the 4th quarter of 2009 though levels were still considerable higher as compared to the first quarter of 2009.

In India, all the sub-sectors of textiles and clothing (T&C) production have registered positive growth during April 2010. This is a good sign of recovery in textiles production in comparison to growth rates of March 2010 when, except cotton textiles all other sub-sectors had negative growth. Cotton textiles’ production has increased by 6.9% in April 2010, whereas “wool, silk and man-made textiles” have a growth of 0.1%: and jute and other fibre textiles and their products (including apparel) have grown by 1.3% and 1.5% respectively. Rebound in cotton textiles production since January 2010 has been increasingly supported by cotton yarn demands in domestic as well as exports market despite the surge in prices. However, there is moderation in cotton production in recent times after the restrictions on cotton yarn exports. Textile products (including apparel), which are basically the inputs for the garment production had a low growth of 1.5% during April 2010 and because of its significant contribution (weights) in overall textiles sectors, the overall growth for the sectors has been down at a meagre 3%. Cumulative growth for overall T&C sectors was 6.4% during FY 2009-10, which was better in comparison with substantially the low growth of 0.8% of FY 2008-2009, but April 2010 growth in comparison to April 2009 is abysmally low. In fact, negative or insignificant growth rates are being observed across all four sub-sectors of textile and main driver of growth under textiles sector from cotton segment is also showing moderation in growth. This shows the concerns for the whole of these sectors, when the rest of manufacturing sectors are performing well.