"Layoffs, losses tear through key garment export hub", 8 September 2025

Shortly after the US confirmed a total of 50% duties on Indian goods...RK Sivasubramaniam, a garment exporter based in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur, received an email from his buyer in New York that they can pay only 10% of the levy.

“The buyer asked me to bear the remaining amount. If I can’t, they want to cancel the order. This is from my major buyer to whom I ship half a million pieces every month,” said Sivasubramaniam, the managing director of Raft Garments...

Sivasubramaniam is among the 2,000 garment exporters from Tiruppur who fielded calls from clients asking to hold back production; many of the exporters fear that some production will move to competitive countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan. “There is no business with the US now,” said KM Subramanian, President of the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) and Chairman of K M Knitwear Pvt Limited...

It’s not just the garment exporters who take a hit but also the ancillary industries, and migrant labourers.

There are around 3,000 allied units such as spinning, knitting, printing, embroidery, of which around 90% are Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), employing roughly one million people directly or indirectly , said Thirukumaran...

Exporters said that they work on wafer thin margins ranging between 5% and 8%.

“Right now, I have 2 million pieces in hand which are ready to be shipped to the US in the first week of September but I’ve been asked to hold them,” said Sivasubramaniam.

“And, I’ve already invested for the next order cycle by buying yarn; the fabric is cut. The next stage is sewing. I don’t know what to do with the cut fabric now.” Subramaniam anticipated he would be staring at a loss of ₹3 crore a month.

He employs 400 labourers, of which half are local residents . The other half are migrant workers whom he houses in hostels. “Diwali is coming up. Employees need money, cash flow is affected and 50% of our work has halted. So what do we do?”

Exporters to the US receive production orders during August and September ahead of and Christmas on December 25; these orders have now been halted. Production orders for Fall 2026 have also been paused, said Thirukumaran...

“Most of the US buyers have told us that they are moving to competing countries. Only some branded factories have trained labourers for more than 10 years to make garments in a certain style that may not move immediately.”..