Textile industry biz picks up as lockdown curbs ease | Ludhiana News

Ludhiana: Garment and textile industry is upbeat over several states easing lockdown curbs that has ignited hope of movement of their goods in transit or not delivered to the warehouses and offices of their customers. Some of the industrialists have already started getting calls from their customers for discussing delivery and next consignment plans that has brought sense of cheer amongst businessmen.
Vinod Thapar, chairman of Knitwear Club, said, “Maharashtra has relaxed lockdown curbs slightly in several cities from Tuesday, while Uttar Pradesh too lifting day curfew from districts having less than 600 coronavirus cases and Rajasthan also has announced it will ease the restrictions from Wednesday at some places. Though these states are not going to open up entirely this week but the unlocking has started and several business activities will start right away. This is a good sign for garment factories of Ludhiana that were under extreme pressure due to piling of goods worth several hundred crores in our factories, in transit and in godowns of transports after one after another state went into lockdown. We are assuming that in next 7-10 days the movement of goods will start though it is not going to return back to normal as of now but still something is better than nothing.”
According to Harish Kairpal, finance secretary of Knitwear Club, “We have heaved a sigh of relief as we have started receiving calls from our customers based in states like UP, Rajasthan and Delhi for holding discussions about the goods that were in transit or are held up at the godowns and offices of the transport ever since the lockdown in those state started. We were very much worried about these consignments as these were undelivered due to closure of the shops, offices and warehouses of our customers due to the lockdown in their states. We are hoping that in majority of the states shops, showrooms will be allowed to open in a day or so and our customers will be able to receive the goods.”
Narinder Mittal, general secretary of the Ludhiana Business Forum, said, “This is a big relief for us as there was huge uncertainty over the future of the already shipped goods. It is a common trade practice that we cannot push our customers for payment of the goods, which are undelivered, so we were not asking them for paying up for these goods, but now customers are themselves calling us for finalising the payment schedule of these consignments as they also know that they will soon get the goods after their state governments have announced easing the curbs.”