Civil unrest in Bangladesh may turn West Bengal’s fabric buyers to Amritsar

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 7

After the civil unrest in Bangladesh, the holy city-based Rs 2,000 crore annual turnover warp knitting industry, a kind of textile, is looking for a possible spike in orders from Eastern India, especially West Bengal. The city has between 400 and 600 manufacturing warp knitting units.

In the Eastern India, Kolkata is the biggest market for the Amritsar-based manufacturers supplying warp- knit fabric which is used in fashion industry for manufacturing ethnic wear, including lehngas, lady suits and sarees and for making mosquito mesh nets.

At present, Amritsar is supplying only 25 per cent of the entire market share of West Bengal and the rest of the 75 per cent demand for warp-knit fabric is met by Bangladesh manufacturers. Krishan Kumar Sharma, a leading industrialist, claimed that the deployment of Indian troops along the India-Bangladesh border would not only strengthen the security, but also help curb tax evasion on imported goods, including textiles. He said the warp-knit fabric reaches eastern parts of the country from Bangladesh without paying any tax. He hoped that strict security measures would bring down the difference in prices of textiles being manufactured in Bangladesh and Amritsar to a level playing field.

Bangladesh manufacturers are supplying warp-knit fabric at 10 to 15 per cent less rates offered by the local manufacturers who provide fabric at minimum Rs 6 to a maximum of Rs 30 per metre.

While sounding cautious, Ajay Mehra, another manufacturer of the warp-knit fabric, said troubles like civil unrest cause inconvenience to common people. He said the industry in Bangladesh had the backing of big business houses in China and the UAE. They would look for alternate secure passages to deliver the fabric in India, he said.

He said, “Chinese manufacturers are supplying full drawn yarn (FDY), used for manufacturing warp-knit fabric, to Bangladesh textile industry. The finished fabric is supplied to India. This move brought down local manufacturers’ market share in Eastern Indian. Being a labour-intensive industry, these units provide employment to thousands.”

Earlier, many Amritsar-based skilled knitting artisans shifted to Surat to work in warp-knitting industry as several Gujarati entrepreneurs had established their units there. These entrepreneurs capitalised on the advantage of getting raw material from Maharashtra which was in their vicinity. This helped in reducing their investment costs.

Used in a wide range of items

Wrap-knit fabric, a branch of the textile industry, is widely used in the manufacture of a wide range of items, including shoes, schoolbags, automobiles, curtains, bed sheets, briefcases, sportswear, helmets, travelling accessories, men and women wear, besides many other things. The warp-knit fabric is widely used in party dresses earning it the name of fashion fabric. Two kinds of warp-knit fabric - raschel, made with latch needles and tricot, made by using bearded needles, - is available in the market.