Yarn imported from India as local prices go up
Jannatul Ferdushy || BusinessInsider
Photo: Representational
No sooner had the apparel makers discussed yarn price hikes than one of them imported yarn from India with significant low price.
One of the country’s leading knitwear manufacturers got his first Indian shipment in Benapole check post on Tuesday.
Leading trade bodies said local spinning mills are asking higher prices for yarn than the international market.
MB Knit Fashion Ltd already imported some 197 tonnes of poly-cotton (recycle) from India at $3.15 per kilogram as against its local price of $4.50 per kilogram.
The Managing Director of MB Knit Fashion Ltd and first Vice President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Mohammad Hatem, said, they were compelled to import yarn from India.
“We could not execute our ongoing orders due to high priced local yarn, so we were bound to import our basic materials from abroad. If the spinners don’t cut prices we may continue importing from cheaper global sources,” said Hatem.
He told Business Insider Bangladesh on Tuesday that they were also corresponding with several other yarn exporters from across the global market.
The Vice President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) and Managing Director of Israq Textile Mills Limited, Fazlul Hoque, argued that local millers were trying to recover their previously incurred losses.
“Once, we incurred huge losses, now when the work-orders have been increasing by 20 percent, we would like to recover our previous losses. Besides, raw cotton prices have also gone up in the international market. Due to worldwide lockdown, shipment expenses have increased, too. Therefore, there is no reason to cut the yarn price, now.”
The apparel exporters urged the government to give them --- without a bond licence--- permission to import yarn with duty-free facility.
They have decided to write to the ministries and divisions concerned and to the Competition Commission to press home their demand.
Although the local yarn users are enjoying 4 percent incentives from the government they now prefer importing it.
