"Hanging by a thread: 50% US tariffs put Indian textile exporters in survival mode", 24 November 2025

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The US is the largest export market for India’s US$179 billion (S$234 billion) textile and apparel industry...But that market is shrinking fast.

“Our Indian government asks us to find new markets to export to instead of the US. Textiles are not vegetables – it’s not easy to just go here, go there. It will take six months to a few years to find importers in other markets, and even then, purchase orders are unlikely to be in American quantities,” said Mr Siva, 50.

Since Aug 27, when Mr Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on goods imported from India – including a 25 per cent penalty for buying Russian oil – apparel exports have dropped, by 10.34 per cent in September and a further 12.91 per cent in October...

The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) estimated the [textile] hub has been hit by a loss of 12 billion rupees since the US tariff hike was announced. Tiruppur’s jolt reflects the struggles faced by Indian apparel exporters nationwide.

“When Trump announced the first 25 per cent tariff on July 30, it was only slightly more than the 19 per cent to 20 per cent tariffs our competitors in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar faced. It hit our wafer-thin margins of 5 per cent to 10 per cent, but we exporters and American buyers agreed to share it,” said Mr Kumar Duraisamy, joint secretary of TEA, attributing India’s resilience to being the globe’s second-largest cotton producer after China.

“But after the US imposed the additional 25 per cent on India as penalty (for buying Russian oil) in August, it was like sending a patient to the intensive care unit. No buyer will absorb 50 per cent,” he added.

Mr Siva’s Raft Garments...exports more than half of its cotton underwear and T-shirts to the US – to importers that supply brands like Nautica, New Balance and Skechers. But the orders have since dried up.

“I had orders for a total of two million pieces in April from the US, due this year. After the August tariff, the importers took only 500,000 pieces – that, too, I had to ship at a loss in November, bearing most of the 50 per cent tariff myself. The remaining 1.5 million pieces are on hold and no new orders are coming,” Mr Siva told The Straits Times.

He added that American buyers were asking for discounts that he could not afford.

Exporters entirely dependent on US imports have been hit hard, but others, too, said that after the initial panic, they are now in “survival mode”.

To tide over the overnight shock of the 50 per cent tariffs, exporters are cutting costs by rationalising machinery use, running their factories at a lower capacity, and frantically seeking new customers in Europe and Africa.

These have kept the lights on in factories for now, even though firms are unable to map out long-term production schedules and banks are cautious about extending credit to US-dependent exporters...

To survive, companies are retrenching workers and competing in a price race to the bottom as they seek the same small pool of non-American buyers, industry insiders said...

A young entrepreneur from Tiruppur who requested anonymity said there is no choice but to “find other shores to survive”.

“Tired of the uncertainty”, the 38-year-old businessman said he was not only making trips to Europe and South Africa to woo customers, but also booking tickets to Bangladesh and Vietnam to assess the possibility of setting up factories in these nations, which face lower US tariffs...

Mr Jeevan Xavier, founder of JLX Studio, which consults on knitwear design for brands like H&M and Target, said he had no orders, but diverting exports is not as promising as it is made out to be: “The US is the only unified market we have. Is there another country that has America’s capacity? Only China, but India doesn’t have much trade for finished products with China.”...

Mr Siva noted that a single American importer would place an order for about 500,000 pieces, equal to the combined orders of five companies in Europe...

To ride out the crisis, companies like Raft Garments have shrunk their operations...

“We are working at a third of our capacity because we don’t have orders to meet. Migrant workers from North India went home for their Deepavali break, and I have not called them back because I have no work for them,” Mr Siva said...

Entrepreneurs across Tiruppur have responded with similar tweaks to operations, while some of the larger companies have reportedly closed a few factory units...

Workers from three manufacturing units of mega exporters in the Netaji Apparel Park told ST that they have not gone in to work in over a month...

Young workers from the north and eastern states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam account for 70 per cent of the workforce in Tiruppur. ST saw many waiting at the train station to return home...

“Piece-rate workers”, as the apparel industry calls the lowest rung of freelance garment workers, are sensing a shift with their lighter workloads.

Such workers are predominantly women and members of the Dalit (formerly untouchable) communities hired by small or medium-sized units. They are paid a rupee or less for every garment they hem, stitch buttons on, or affix zippers to...

...a worker named Mrs Ruby, 30, said her “work pressure is much less, which is a relief for me for the present and a source of worry in the future”...

Some exporters likened the 50 per cent tariff’s impact to “a tsunami”, but others were more measured in their assessment...