The increasing cases of Omicron have started impacting the apparel industry directly be it demand from domestic or overseas market, increasing shortage of workers or more orders of PPEs.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has estimated a decline in sales in various categories ranging from about 30 per cent to 65 per cent; for the apparel segment, it is going to be around 30 per cent.
Praveen Khandelwal, National Secretary-General, CAIT said that according to a survey done by the traders’ body between 1 and 6 Januaryin 36 cities, the country’s domestic trade has declined by an average of about 45 per cent in the last week.
On the manufacturing front, in some of the apparel manufacturing hubs like Delhi-NCR, it has been noticed that majority of the migratory workers,who were supposed to come back in the first week of January, have not joined the factory and are still in villages.
The workers who are working in the garment factories have their apprehensions regarding lockdown. Lalit Thukral, President, Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC) said that we are in touch with the workers and have assured them not to worry about anything. “Currently things are under control and we are there to support workers for every situation. Our cluster even have resources to fight with Covid,” he said.
At the same time, some of the manufacturers of PPEs are again witnessing increasing orders from the domestic market and enquiries from overseas have also increased. At the same time, new order booking for garments is expected to be a little slow as buyers, as well as Indian suppliers, are doubtful how things will take shape in next one or two months.
Rajeev Bansal, MD, Celestial Knits & Fabs, Noida and National Vice President of Indian Industries Association (IIA),hassaid orders booking has been a little slow since last few days as buyers are also very careful about the overall situation in their countries as well as in suppliers’ countries.
