Sources point out that in the first five months of the current year, polyester fibre shipments have plummeted by nearly 46 per cent in volume terms and by as much as 65 per cent in terms of value compared with the same period of the earlier year.

In quantitative terms, shipments have been down to 3689 tonnes against 6261 tonnes. In terms of value, exports have dwindled during the period to US$1.99 million, against US$5.65 million. The steep decline in value terms is due partly to lower shipments and partly to fall in price realisations.Though the prices for polyester fibre in international markets have considerably improved in the last few months, Indian polyester fibre remains mostly priced out in the overseas markets.

After starting the current year on a depressed note, exports of polyesterfibre showed some signs of recovery, but that proved short-lived. In August 1999, shipments were just of the order of 159 tonnes compared with 175 tonnes in the previous month and 1257 tonnes in August 1998.

As the accompanying table would show, despatches in each of the first five months of the current year have been mostly lower compared with the same in the corresponding period of the earlier year.

Even in the case of polyester filament yarn (including PFY, textured and POY yarn) shipments in the first five months of 1999-2000 are below those in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Quantitatively they are marginally down 3.88 per cent to 18,079.06 tonnes compared with 18,808.33 tonnes. In value terms, however the decline is as much as 24.34 per cent at US$21.60 million compared with US$28.55 million in the same period of the earlier year.

If one looks at all items of synthetic and rayon textiles exported from the country, the picture remains far from encouraging. This is evident from thefact that in the first five months of the current year, fabric exports have actually been down by 3.98 per cent to US$198.13 million from US$206.34 million in the same period of the earlier year.

No doubt exports of made-ups during the period have been better by 28.75 per cent at US$87.38 million, against US$67.87 million in the same period of the earlier year.

But, exports of all types of yarn have shown only marginal improvement during the period with the result that the overall exports of all items of synthetic and rayon textiles show only nominal improvement of 2.52 per cent at US$457.91 million compared with US$417.39 million in the same period of the preceding year.

However, chairman of the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council, GK Gupta has recently observed that though exports of synthetic and rayon textiles faced some global constraints, he was hopeful of a smart recovery in the near future. The SRTEPC has fixed a higher overall export target for synthetic and rayon textileitems at US$1100 million for the current year compared with actual exports worth US$950.37 million in 1998-99, but exporters prefer to keep their fingers crossed.