Textiles and leather: Follow one offering through the chain
Spinning, weaving and processing fibres into yarn and fabric, and hides into leather
Follow one offering through the chain
A Welspun cotton towel from Anjar
Follow a bath towel from an Indian cotton field to a store shelf in America.
Cotton picked and ginned
312 lakhbales of cotton, 2024-25 seasonFarmers in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana grow most of India's cotton, and ginners strip the lint from the seed and press it into 170 kg bales. The Cotton Association of India put the 2024-25 crop at 312.4 lakh bales, down from 336.5 lakh a year earlier. India grows about 24% of the world's cotton, the second-largest share after China.1,2
Constraint Yields swing with monsoon rain and pest attacks; the 2024-25 crop was about 24 lakh bales smaller than the year before (calculated). Ct CottonH₂O WaterN Nitrogen (ammonia)Ins InsecticidesAgr Energy in farmingWater and sanitationSpun into yarn, with imported help
41 lakhbales of cotton imported, 2024-25Spinning mills open the bales, card and comb the fibre and twist it into yarn; a towel needs soft, absorbent cotton yarn for its pile loops. Indian mills used about 314 lakh bales in 2024-25, more than the crop, so the season needed about 41 lakh bales of imports while exports fell to 18 lakh bales (CAI estimates).1
Constraint Spinning is power-hungry, and cotton prices and import duty decide whether Indian yarn stays competitive with mills in China and Vietnam. Ct CottonH₂O WaterMachinery and equipmentElectrical equipmentWoven into terry on jacquard looms
6,400 tnew jacquard towel capacity a yearTerry looms weave a flat ground fabric while extra warp threads are pushed up into loops on both faces, which make a towel absorbent; jacquard heads add woven patterns. In October 2024 Welspun Living's board reported that a Rs 341 crore terry towel project at Anjar in Kutch, adding 6,400 tonnes a year, was nearly complete and due by December 2024.3
Constraint High-speed terry looms come mostly from European and Japanese makers, and warp yarn must be sized with starch before weaving. Ct CottonStr Starch and cellulose derivativesMachinery and equipmentBleached and dyed with recycled sewage
30 MLDsewage treated for the Anjar plantThe raw terry is scoured, bleached with hydrogen peroxide and dyed with reactive dyes, salt and soda ash, then softened and dried. This is the thirstiest step. Welspun's 30 million-litre-a-day plant at Anjar treats town sewage for its processes, recycling over 2 billion litres in FY25, and the company says its Anjar manufacturing now uses no freshwater.4
Constraint Kutch is water-scarce and dyeing needs effluent permits; without recycled sewage, freshwater limits would cap how much fabric the site could dye. H₂O WaterDye DyesNaCl SaltSda Soda ashH2O2 Hydrogen peroxideWater and sanitationCut, hemmed and packed for retailers
100,000 tplanned Welspun towel capacity, FY27Home-textile makers cut the dyed fabric into towels, hem and label them and pack them to a retailer's specification, often under the store's own brand. Welspun Living had about 90,000 tonnes a year of towel capacity in 2024 (calculated), and its board approved Rs 709 crore more at Anjar to reach 100,000 tonnes, with bed linen rising to 144 million metres, by FY27 (plan).3
Constraint Retailer programmes are re-tendered season by season, so cotton, power and freight costs decide whether orders stay in India or move to Pakistan or China. Ct CottonPSF Polyester fibrePaper and packagingTransport and logisticsCertified, then taxed at the border
50%peak US duty on Indian goods, 2025Before shipping, labs test the towels for restricted chemicals and certifiers check claims such as organic or traceable cotton, which US and European retailers demand. Then comes the tariff. US duties on Indian goods reached 50% in August 2025 and an interim deal in February 2026 set 18%; after the US Supreme Court struck those tariffs down, a 10% duty has applied since.5,6,7,8
Constraint Brands want cotton traced to the farm, which fragmented smallholdings struggle to prove, and US duties have swung between 50% and 10% since 2025. Rgt Reagents and high-purity lab chemicalsProfessional servicesWhat the chain shows
In dry Kutch, water rather than cotton is the binding limit and US trade policy sets the margin; recycled sewage and traceable fibre are India's edge.
Sources
- CAI estimates cotton output at 312.40 lakh bales in 2024-25 season Outlook Business (PTI), 2025
- Indian textile sector: overview and schemes Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Textiles, 2025
- Outcome of board meeting: towel and bed linen capacity expansion at Anjar (Q2 FY25) Welspun Living via NSE, 2024
- ESG: Environment Welspun Living, 2025
- 50% US tariff on Indian apparel exports could be death knell for small firms: AEPC Deccan Herald, 2025
- United States removes additional tariffs on imports from India KPMG TaxNewsFlash, 2026
- White House says India to face temporary 10 per cent tariff after new US order All India Radio News (Prasar Bharati), 2026
- US tariff surcharge on India expires today, so what's next? New Section 301 duties The Week, 2026