The recent spike in Covid-19 cases has halted the revival in Surat’s synthetic textiles hub. With roughly 215 fresh daily cases and the tally at 6,313 (with 200 deaths), business activity across the textile value chain — right from spinning yarn to making garments — has come to a near-standstill. In addition, despite the rupee depreciating to Rs 76.97 a dollar between April and June, the industry has not been able to leverage it in terms of exports. Surat commands a 45 per cent share in total man-made fibre/synthetic textiles produced, as well as synthetic textile yarn, fibre, fabrics and made-ups, accounting for annual exports of $6 billion.
Textile manufacturing and trading had touched 5-10 per cent of the original capacity. However, civic authorities have ordered the closure of key textile markets, leading to a halt in business activity. Pre-Covid, Surat would manufacture 20-25 million metres of synthetic textiles a day, down from the peak of 40 million metres before demonetisation and GST impacted capacity utilisation.
