The Hindu Business Line : Falling hire rates hits grey cloth weavers

EVEN as the new investment for upgrading the weaving machines is on the rise, weavers offering looms for hire are confronted with decline in hire or conversion charges billed by them for the cloth woven in their loom sheds on job-work basis.

Lack of fresh orders from major cloth dealers and textile exporters in the past three months is said to be one of the reasons for the sliding hire charges.

The exporters regularly engage the weavers in the decentralised power looms in key grey cloth production centres in Coimbatore and neighbouring Erode districts. Other decentralised weaving centres such as Thiruchengodu and Salem powerloom centres are also facing low hire charges.

Informed powerloom industry sources said that there has been a 40 per cent reduction in the hire charges with the average per-pick per-metre rate for grey fabric production having fallen to as low as 27 or 28 paise from the last year's peak of `per pick' rate of 40 paise. Every metre of grey cloth woven will approximately contain some 70 `picks' to be taken to calculate the hire charge.

The sources told Business Line that though the `pick' rate charged by the job-working powerloom factory owners can be influenced by the volume of orders available on hand at any given month, a sharp dip in the rate of the conversion charges would not occur too often.

A low order booking for grey cloth production from the master-weavers or from major textile cloth exporters apart, the hesitancy on the part of the trade to keep any higher fabric stocks could be yet another reason for the southward movement of the conversion rate.