Fabric imports by the south Asian island nation of Sri Lanka is to remain volatile during this year.
The country’s fabric imports declined last year when the country faced economic problems, but it managed to control the damage quickly and imports rose again in the subsequent months indicating normal textile and apparel manufacturing.
Import declined in March from February 2022, but recovered in April. Sri Lankan inward shipment of the product again increased in May and June but dropped once again in July.
Of the island country’s total textile imports in January 2022 to June 2022, fabric was the most important component, with a contribution of 81.18 per cent.
Sri Lanka imported 39 per cent of fabric from China and 26 per cent from India. Taiwan, Pakistan and Hong Kong were among the top five suppliers.
The country’s imported yarn during the first half of 2022 accounted for 17per cent of total textile imports.
Fiber imports were 0.85 per cent. In comparison, during the first six months of last year, out of Sri Lankan textile imports, fabric imports were 79 per cent, yarn 19 per cent and fiber 0.92 per cent.
Efforts are being made to attract key players in the fabric segment to invest in fabric mills in Sri Lanka
Indian fabric is gaining ground in the Sri Lankan textile market as imports from India are increasing in the island country compared to Chinese supplies.
Sri Lanka’s fabric imports from India are witnessing an upward trend as they jumped by more than fifty per cent in four years, but its import from China remained almost stable during the same period.
Sri Lanka’s fabric imports from India increased to $565.848 million in 2021 from $374.214 million in 2017, according to Fibre Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro.
The inbound shipment had amounted to $426.046 million in 2018 and $485.160 million in 2019, before declining to $410.881 million in 2020 due to the pandemic.
However, it bounced back to $565.848 million in 2021. Sri Lanka imported fabric worth $556.921 million during January-November 2022. The total imports for 2022 are likely to surpass the shipment of 2021.
Fabric imports from China to Sri Lanka were recorded at $888.772 million in 2017 which increased to $897.101 million in 2021.
The shipment increased by just 1 per cent in four years. The imports amounted to $892.740 million in 2018 and $944.202 million in 2019.
It came down to $720.823 million in 2020 but increased to $897.101 million in 2021. Sri Lanka imported fabric worth $829.451 million in the first eleven months of 2022, as per data obtained from TexPro.
Sri Lanka’s fabric imports totaled $2.141 billion in the first eleven months of 2022. China and India were the top suppliers with a total contribution of more than 64 per cent.
The imports from China grabbed a share of 38.73 per cent, while India’s share was 26.01 per cent of the total.
