Leading Indian home textiles have predicted that the recessionary impact in the US market would go away by the second half of the Indian fiscal year 2024. Most of them are optimistic that they would maintain healthy profits.
Due to lower demand in the US and European markets, home textile exports from India are expected to post a decline of 16-18 percent in the current fiscal year (FY23) compared with last year. Sivaramkrishnan Ganapathi, of Gokaldas Exports, in a TV interview, said that despite improved efficiency obtained fewer orders due to lower demand in western markets. He however was optimistic that the loss in orders would be covered in the second half of this fiscal as the US is coming out of recession.
Home textiles contribute significantly to Indian textile exports. Its exports jumped by 34 percent in the fiscal year 2021 and by 12.6 percent in the fiscal year 2022. The next year Indian plunged to $23.1 billion in April-Nov 2022 recording a decline of 13.4 percent. It was a sharp decline when compared with exports of $44.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022. After initial growth, textile exports began to level off in Q2 FY22 due to rising commodity rates, high inflation, and the start of a global recession.
The four listed home textile companies in the Indian stock market holding a 30-35 percent share in home textile exports from India suffered a substantial share loss last year and are expected to take a further hit of 4-5 percent in FY23.
