Spinning mills warn of 'survival crisis' amid influx of foreign yarn dumping, urge policy protection

Bangladesh's spinning industry is in a "severe survival crisis" due to a surge in dumped foreign yarn, rising production costs and intensifying global competition, industry stakeholders warned today. 

Speaking at a press conference at the National Press Club, mill employees under the banner "Workers, Employees, and Officials Employed in the Spinning Industry"appealed for urgent policy support, urging the government to impose anti-dumping duties and introduce safeguard measures to protect the domestic sector from further decline.

Engineer Azhar Ali, chief operating officer of Salma Group, said many exporting countries offer heavy subsidies to their own yarn manufacturers, allowing them to export yarn at prices significantly lower than Bangladesh's production costs.

"This situation is causing local yarn to lose competitiveness, while the domestic market is being flooded with imported yarn sold at "dumping-level prices," he said.

Azhar further noted that a combination of the post-Covid economic slowdown, the Ukraine war, the dollar crisis and sharp increases in gas and electricity tariffs has forced nearly 40% of the country's spinning mills to shut down in recent years.

"As a result, almost one lakh workers have lost their jobs, while the mills still in operation are running at only 50-60% of their capacity," he added.

Presiding over the event, Ruhul Amin, executive director of Greentex Composite Mills Ltd, said, "Persistent dumping of foreign yarn is rapidly eroding the market share of local producers. If immediate preventive measures are not taken, the country's apparel sector risks collapsing."

Industry insiders said the sector urgently needs policy support to stabilise production and regain competitiveness. 

They called for incentives for garment exporters using local yarn, protective duties on imports, reinstatement of the EDF facility, increased use of local raw materials, and incentives for recycled products.

They also sought low-interest, long-term loans for machinery upgrades and measures to offset reduced import capacity caused by the taka's depreciation.

Azhar Ali said although gas and electricity prices have risen by 350% over three consecutive adjustments, product prices in the textile and backward linkage sectors have not been revised accordingly.

He called for a 30% rebate on utility bills and a two-year emergency stimulus for export-oriented factories.

The press conference was attended by several industry representatives, including Shahinul Haque, director (operations) at Mosharraf Composite Group; Abul Kalam Azad, director at Armada Group; Shantimoy Dutta, advisor at Ahmed Group; and ABM Sirajul Islam, director at Jamuna Group.