Swak Mills of South Korea presently has 841 operating looms, which is lowest, compared to 2300 operating looms it had at end of 2000, resulting into a decline in monthly cotton fabric output.
February cotton fabric production totaled 3.643 million square meters, registering a fall of 46.7 percent year-on-year which follows a 53.6 percent year-on-year drop in January output.
Total cotton fabric output of South Korea declined 35.9 percent in 2005.
Cumulative January through February cotton fabric output is down 50.4 percent compared to year ago levels to only 7.365 million square meters.
This has affected South Korean apparel production and reduction in use of Chinese fabric in remaining domestic operations.
Ongoing growth in South Korean economy has increased dependency on Chinese apparel imports for domestic demand.
Major part of remaining apparel manufacturing concentrates on valued-added processing of imports.