South Indian textile industry cuts production due to power shortage

Dyeing, Printing, Processing

South Indian textile industry cuts production due to power shortage

The South Indian textile industry which has over 2200 spinning mills, is slowing down due to daily power cuts of over 7 hours a day. The production is down by over 40 per cent and many units on the verge of shut down.

The production loss is about Rs. 55-60 crores (around US$ 12 -13 million) per day and the industries were badly affected. The Southern India Mills Association official said that the crisis is in a bad situation and if power supply does not improve, the mills will have to close down due to the losses. The textile city of Coimbatore where over 10,000 small to large size textile factories are in operation are facing heavy losses due to this crisis. The power supply to these factories throughout the day is just 80 per cent of their actual requirement and it drops to just 10 per cent during the peak hours of 6-10 pm. This is apart from the scheduled power cuts of 3 hours every day. Tamil Naidu has a power demand of 10,600 MW and a deficit of 2000 MW while Coimbatore alone has a deficit of 600 MW as indicated by Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association.

Also, sudden drop in cotton and cotton yarn prices in last one month has hit the yarn spinning industry extremely and operating the factories at negative margins. Power shortage has worsened the situation which seems to have no immediate solution as the demand for power goes up during summer.