Fabric Output Hit a New High in September While Garment Output Fell Again

The September numbers

India's Ministry of Statistics released the quick estimate of the Index of Industrial Production for September 2026 on 28 October. On the 2022-23 base, Manufacture of textiles stood at 145.2, against 123.7 in September 2025. That is a rise of 17.4 percent year on year, and it is the highest monthly reading the textiles line has shown since the new series began.

Manufacture of wearing apparel stood at 89.1, against 94.0 a year earlier, a fall of 5.2 percent. For April to September the cumulative rates are textiles up 12.9 percent and apparel down 5.6 percent.

General industrial production grew 6.7 percent in September and manufacturing 7.6 percent. So textiles grew more than twice as fast as manufacturing as a whole, and garments went the other way. These are quick estimates, built on an 86.5 percent weighted response rate, and they will be revised.

We have been tracking this split since June in The Looms Are Busy and the Sewing Floor Is Not. September is the fourth month in a row with the same shape, and the gap between the two lines is now wider than in any month so far.

China's profit data points the same way

Figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics released on 28 October, as reported by Fibre2Fashion, put profits at above-scale textile companies up 7.2 percent, on revenue up 1.7 percent. The broader group covering textiles, wearing apparel and accessories saw profits fall 15.6 percent.

We could not open the statistics bureau's release from here, so these figures are attributed and not linked. The report itself notes that the data does not separate fabric margins from garment margins, and we are not reading more into it than that. What it does show is the same shape as India's volume data, this time in money: the cloth-making end of the chain is doing better than the garment end.

What busy mills mean for a buyer

When weaving and processing capacity is running hot, three things follow for anyone placing a fabric order, in India or anywhere else that shows the same pattern.

• Lead times stretch first on loom-state slots and processing-house queues, not on the finished cloth. A delivery date given in a quiet month is not a promise in a busy one, so confirm it against today's queue.
• Quote validity gets shorter. A mill that is full has little reason to hold a price for weeks while input costs move, so a quote that used to stand for a month may now stand for days.
• Discounts for volume are harder to get, because the mill does not need the volume. What still earns better terms is a firm schedule: a buyer who fixes quantities and dates early is easier to plan around than one who adds a large order late.

What this does not tell you

An output index measures volume, not price. Strong fabric output does not on its own mean fabric prices are rising; input costs, covered in our notes on yarn prices, decide that. And a falling garment line does not mean garment buyers have gone away. Part of it is export orders that moved elsewhere, which we wrote about in US apparel imports from India.

It is also an all-India number. It covers yarn and every kind of fabric, so it says nothing exact about uniform suiting in particular. Treat it as the weather, not the forecast for your order.

What a buyer should do

• Place repeat orders for the next season earlier than usual, and fix the delivery date in writing.
• Ask any supplier for the validity period of a quote, not just the price.
• Split a large order into confirmed lots with dates rather than holding it back for a better price.
• For uniform programmes with a fixed issue date, build slack into the fabric delivery date, not the stitching date.

Our position in this

We weave uniform suiting and shirting in-house at Village Atoon, Bhilwara, with dyeing and finishing through partnered Bhilwara processing houses. The processing queue is the part of our lead time that moves with the market, and we tell buyers the date we can actually meet when we quote. Request Catalog to start a quote.