Coimbatore : Ashwin Chandran was on Monday elected chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) for 2019-2020.

Ravi Sam will be deputy chairman and Dr SK Sundararaman vice-chairman. The election was held during the 60th general meeting here.

Outgoing chairman P Nataraj said the impact of two major reforms – demonetisation and GST – affected the performance of manufacturing industries. Before the economy could fully recover, the worldwide recession, particularly after the US-China trade war again, affected national growth.

The country’s textiles and clothing industry, particularly the capital-intensive spinning sector, was facing yet another major crisis due to volatility in cotton prices and currency values, steep fall in exports, piling-up of
stocks, production cut, severe liquidity crunch, significant increase in cheaper imports of MMF spun yarns, synthetic fabrics and ready-made garments huge arrears of government dues.

“We have requested the Government to take appropriate remedial policy measures, clear all the Government dues on a fast track and extend the rebate on State and

Central tax and levy benefits to all manufactured textile goods across the value chain,” Nataraj said.

The State Government had announced the Integrated Textile Policy 2019 during March which encourages value addition, strengthening of downstream sectors and modernising spinning, he said, adding the Government was in the process of framing the policy guidelines.

On performance, Nataraj said total yarn production during 2018-19 was 5,862 million kgs, 3.2 per cent higher than the previous year, and on three months up to June stood at 1,591 million kgs, 9.6 per cent higher than during the same period the previous year.

Cotton yarn export declined by over 35 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal. It was the lowest in the month of June in the last five years recording only 57 million kg.