Layoffs, losses tear through key garment export hub

The first knitwear unit in Tiruppur was set up in 1925 and the growth of the industry was slow till late 1930s and became prominent by 1940s, according to TEA

Shortly after the US confirmed a total of 50% duties on Indian goods August 27, 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.

Around a third of exports from Tiruppur, a garment-making cluster accounting for 53% of India’s knitwear exports, is shipped to the US. (Getty Images)

“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