Spinning mills in Tamil Nadu are faced with an uncertain future due to the shortage of cotton, rising labour cost, and inadequate and expensive power supply. Mill owners in the state say the cotton shortage has been caused by a surge in export of raw cotton to countries like China, Turkey and Pakistan. Tamil Nadu's spinning mills account for nearly 47 per cent of the total spindle capacity in the country. According to Coimbatore-based The Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA), of the installed capacity of 39 million spindles in the country, the utilised capacity is only 30.5 million. SIMA secretary general K. Selvaraju said the Export of raw cotton from the country, even by official estimates, has crossed 8.5 million bales in the current cotton year (October 2007-September 2008). "We think exports are likely to be closer to 10 million bales, even though the benchmark figure suggested by the Cotton Advisory Board for the year is only 6.5 million bales," he added.
展开▼
