Indian textile and apparel export destination and composition

Growth rate of Indian textile exports much faster than that of apparel

Since last year, concerns about Indian market have been high. Reports have emerged of higher Indian cotton prices, good profits of yarn mills, and a full order book. In the case of rising prices in the midstream and upstream, how is the Indian textile and apparel export market? Which varieties become the hotspots? India's cotton textile and apparel performed well during the pandemic, especially last year, so how about India's textile and apparel exports and export destination?

India's textile and apparel exports value in 2021 reached 41.5 billion USD, up 40% over last year, of which the textile rise by 51%, and the apparel growth rate was 24%. From 2018 to 2020, India's textile and apparel exports were not good and kept shrinking. However, the exports grew up sharply last year. From the perspective of export structure, India's exports are mainly textiles, supplemented by apparel. Last year, textile exports accounted for 63%, up 12 percentage points over 2017, while the proportion of apparel decreased significantly, indicating that India's exports of textiles and semi-finished products increased evidently.

Exports of cotton semi-finished products are dominant in India's textile and apparel exports.

In 2021, cotton semi-finished products exports accounted for the largest share of Indian textile and apparel, reaching 24.2%, up 6.9 percentage points over 2017, while the proportion of apparel decreased significantly.

Note: HS code 50-63, of which HS code 52 is cotton semi-finished products and HS code 61 and 62 are apparel.

Indian textile and apparel mainly exported to the United States and Bangladesh

The United States, Bangladesh, Arab, China and the United Kingdom were the main export markets of India's textile and apparel. In terms of export growth, all main markets grew last year, accounting for a substantial increase in the proportion of the exports to the United States and Bangladesh.

From the perspective of composition of India's textile and apparel exports to US and Bangladesh, apparel and home textiles and products were the largest component of Indian textile and apparel exports to the United States, accounting for 76.3% in 2021, almost the same as last year, but down 6.8 percentage points from 2017. Exports to Bangladesh were mainly textile semi-finished products, of which cotton semi-finished products accounted for the largest proportion, accounting for 87.7% in 2021, up 14.9 percentage points from the recent five-year low, while the proportion of chemical filament staple semi-finished products was small.

Clothing, home textiles and products continued to be the largest component of Indian textile and apparel exports to the United States, while cotton semi-finished products were the largest component of the exports to Bangladesh.

Judging from the growth in recent years, India's exports to the United States and Bangladesh increased significantly last year, of which the export of India's cotton semi-finished products to Bangladesh grew the fastest, up 126.3% compared with that before the pandemic. This was why Bangladesh came to be more accepting of the prices of Indian cotton yarn or cotton grey fabric than China last year. However, since the sharp rise in cotton prices in India this year, spinners and weavers have quoted up, and buyers from Bangladesh have come to be less accepting of the prices of Indian cotton yarn or cotton grey fabric. And there were problems in market transmission. India's textile and apparel exports rapid growth may be affected to a certain extent.