Spinning Mills In Tamil Nadu On Strike From Nov 7-30

Chennai, Nov 6 (KNN) Open-end spinning mills in Tamil Nadu will shut operations from November 7 to 30 due to high raw material prices and electricity tariff.

Similarly, master weavers in Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts have announced a strike from November 5.

G. Arulmozhi, president of the open-end spinning mills’ association, told presspersons in Coimbatore on Saturday, that open-end spinning mills, numbering almost 600 in Tamil Nadu, produce yarn worth Rs 60 crores a day.

“For the past six months, the mills are operating at just 50 per cent of their capacity. Since we are incurring losses if we run the mills, we have decided to stop production,” he said.

He informed that the main raw material for the mills is cotton waste that comes from regular textile mills.

“The price of cotton is Rs 160 a kg and the price of waste cotton should have been Rs 97 a kg. But it is Rs 115 a kg now. Waste cotton prices should decline by Rs 20 a kg. Yarn is sold at Rs 140 to Rs 150 a kg, which was the price prevailing five years ago. In the past five years, costs of power, labour, and raw materials have increased multi-fold,” he said.

Open-end spinning mills in Panipat, Haryana, he pointed out, are able to sell yarn at 30 per cent lower prices compared to those in Tamil Nadu. The power costs in Tamil Nadu will force the closure of the textile industry if the government does not reduce the rates, he added.

“The Central government should control or stop the export of waste cotton, remove the import duty on cotton and relax quality control norms for synthetic fibres. The State government should remove peak hour charges for LT CT electricity consumers and revise the fixed charges,” he said.

Arulmozhi said that the government should support the textile industry with a special status to revive textile activities in Tamil Nadu.

(KNN Bureau)