Mumbai, Sept. 10: Six months after the removal of quotas on textile exports, Indian textile manufacturers and exporters have put up a satisfactory performance.

The country’s textiles and apparels exports to the US jumped close to 30 per cent in value terms to $2.32 billion. Its exports to the European Union countries also grew during the first four months of this year, though at a lesser rate of 7 per cent to Euro 1.6 billion.

India’s performance is commendable from the fact that the export growth rate exceeded the overall growth seen during the period.

Data available from the Office of the Textiles Exports of America (OTEXA) shows that textiles and apparels imports into the US grew at the rate of 11 per cent during the six-month period after the removal of textile export quotas in January this year.

All top supplying countries that included Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Brazil apart from India and China improved their shares in textile trade with the US, barring Turkey.

China continued to dominate the post-quota textiles market, with revenues being 5 times that of India’s in key markets like the US. The imports of Chinese textiles and apparels into the US during the first half of this year leapt to $10 billion, an increase of 67 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

However, India comes a distant second after China, followed by Indonesia ($1.43 billion) and Bangladesh ($1.10 billion).

China also has the largest market share as it accounts for more than 25 per cent of the total US imports of textiles and apparels. India is way behind with a market share of 5.50 per cent.

In the EU, too, China has significantly increased its exports. The Chinese exports to the European market during the period surged by 34 per cent to Euro 4 billion.

However, observers are pleased about India’s performance.

B K Patodia, vice-chairman and managing director, GTN Textiles, said, “India has done exceedingly well in the US market and its exports of items like cotton yarn, knitted fabrics and home textile products, have also registered a positive growth.”

“Imports of home textile categories from India into the US have also shown huge growth ? pillowcases (56.24 per cent), bedsheets (56.31 per cent), bed spreads (12.06 per cent) and towels at 19.11 per cent,” added Patodia, who is also the chairman of Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil).

He further added that India’s performance in the European Union was also commendable as it showed a positive growth in a scenario when there was a decline in the overall imports to the European Union.

Patodia is of the view that with fresh restrictions being put on China by the European Union and the imminent threat of the US following the footsteps, exporters of textiles and garments from India have good opportunities to grow in these markets.

However, Premal Uadni of Clothing Manufacturers Association of India is not extremely thrilled.