Coronavirus: India's apparel export likely to see a boost with China's markets affected

India is expecting an increase in its apparel export as China's market has been affected due to the novel Coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak, said A Sakthivel, the chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). 

"Maybe there will be a 20 percent immediate increase in the exports and later it may slowly increase up to 50-60 percent," A Sakthivel told ANI.

India's major garment markets include the European Union, the USA, and the Middle East. As per the data provided by AEPC, the apparel sector adds to 4.9% of India's total exports.

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AEPC expects orders from the US

AEPC is the official body of the Indian apparel exporters, which provides assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers or international buyers who prefer Indian garments.

"Coronavirus outbreak is unfortunate but there is some opportunity for India to get some orders. Our export is the US $16.2 billion, suppose the US $10 billion is diverted to India, it will not be able to take the order immediately as we do not have the required infrastructure currently," he further added.

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He also asked the Indian exporters to opt for alternatives such as manmade fibers. Indicating that Indian textiles have been underperforming in the past few years, Sakthivel said that countries like Vietnam, Cambodia have beaten India in textile export.

"The export was stagnant in the last four years because other countries have come into the picture like Vietnam, Cambodia besides Bangladesh. In the last three years, our export was average while Vietnam which was doing less than us for years has beaten us now, " he said.

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A drop in Novel Coronavirus cases

The death toll in China from the new coronavirus outbreak soared to 109 bringing the total number of death count to 2345, according to the National Health Commission on February 22. Another 397 new cases were confirmed in China which plummeted from nearly 900 officially reported Friday, bringing the total number of infected cases to over 76,000.

The drop in new cases of the novel coronavirus came as authorities in Hubei province were directed to revise figures to clear any confusion around the data. 

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