Diamond cutters and polishers in Surat will have a shorter-than-usual Diwali break this year. But those engaged in the city’s other mega trade, textiles, will stay away from work for longer than usual.Blame the up and down in the two industries on the vicissitudes of two global wars and President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy. The time for which their workers will be away can be seen as a proxy for how well – or badly – Surat’s diamonds and textiles trades are doing currently.On November 5, the day before Dhanteras, manufacturing units in the historic Hira Bazaar, through which more than 90% of the world’s uncut diamonds pass, went on vacation for 15 days.Their annual holiday usually lasts 25 days, but the workers are coming back sooner because the gems-and-jewellery market, battered over the past several years by a range of factors including the war in Ukraine and the tariffs imposed by the United States, has begun to pick up at last.By contrast, units in Surat’s synthetic textiles industry started downing their shutters for the holidays on November 1, and will not open until the month-end, taking a much longer break than in other years. A dyeing mill in Pandesara, Surat. Operations at the 400-odd dyeing and printing mills in Surat have been impacted by the high prices of imported coal. They will close from November 6, and reopen only after November 20. (Express)The reason, industry leaders said, is the war that the US and Israel started at the end of February, which disrupted Middle Eastern supply chains and drove up the costs of petroleum-based polyester and nylon yarn, dyes and chemicals, as well as freight and transportation.In mid-August, street protests by textile embroidery workers demanding better work conditions including a weekly day off, an eight-hour cap on shifts, a 48-hour ceiling on work weeks, and overtime pay, led to violence, detentions of workers, and FIRs against them.Story continues below this adThe August agitation delivered a blow to the industry as it was struggling to get back on its feet following the return of many out-of-state migrant workers who had left after the March-April panic over the shortage of LPG.Unlike the textile mill workers, diamond industry employees belong mostly to Gujarat, specifically to Saurashtra. These migrants return to places such as Bhavnagar, Amreli, and Rajkot for Diwali. The state transport corporation has started 2,500 extra buses on routes to Saurashtra from November 1 onward.Surat’s 4,000-odd diamond factories employ almost 8 lakh people, about 30,000 of whom are involved in trading and brokering of the gemstone. There are more than 4.5 lakh powerlooms in the city, directly employing almost 6 lakh workers, most of whom are migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, and several other states.After dark patch, a glimmerAfter staying under sustained price pressure from 2022 onward, the market for both natural and lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) began to pick up momentum after March this year, Surat Diamond Association president Jagdish Khunt said.Story continues below this ad“Although there is no change in the geopolitical situation, there is demand from international buyers. The domestic market for natural and LGDs too has grown rapidly to around 25 per cent,” Khunt said.Fresh orders have begun to come in, Jayantibhai Savaliya, chairman of the Gujarat chapter of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), said.“Over the last few years, there was not much demand for diamonds, as a result of which diamond mining companies reduced the prices of rough diamonds, and the price of polished diamonds dropped as well,” Savaliya said.“Curtailment of production of LGDs and naturals has given a boost to the industry in 2026. Besides, we have got good orders for Christmas from the US, UK, and other countries. We have also started getting orders for Valentine’s Day next year,” he said.Story continues below this adAccording to Savaliya, “There is great demand for both diamond-studded jewellery and plain jewellery in the international market. To cope with these demands, many factories in Surat will start early after the (Diwali) break.”Textile industry still in a spinThe textiles industry has had no such luck.By November 4, more than 60% of the powerloom factories in the city had closed for the holidays due to uncertainty in the supply chain, coupled with labour issues in the embroidery units.The industry was badly hit by the 45% increase in the price of crude oil after the war in the Middle East broke out, Mahendra Ramolia of Sachin Weavers’ Association, an industry body, said.“The (polyester) yarn is manufactured from the byproduct of crude oil. There is also an increase in the prices of colour and chemicals imported from foreign countries due to constraints in the Strait of Hormuz,” Ramolia said.Story continues below this ad“Generally”, he said, “we keep holidays for 15 days during Diwali, but this year due to the weak market condition and low demand, we have closed our units from November 6 and will reopen on November 30. The workers have also started going back to their homes (in other states).”Jitu Vakharia, president of the Southern Gujarat Textile Processors’ Association, said higher prices of imported coal had impacted dyeing and printing mills. The 400-odd such mills in Surat will close from November 6, and reopen only after November 20, Vakharia said.“Buyers from other states and districts have also shown less interest. Generally we have a 10-day Diwali vacation,” he said.More than 75,000 textile trading shops in the city’s 240 markets have also begun to close. Federation of Surat Textile Traders’ Association secretary Dinesh Katariya said the market was slow, and the association had declared a vacation from November 8 to 12.Story continues below this ad“We are hoping for some upward movement in the market during the wedding season which will start after Diwali,” Katariya said.Kamal Tulsian, who heads the Pandesara Industrial Association, said there has been a “40% drop in production” this year. “This time Diwali is not as good as earlier years. There is no buying in the market, and we are yet to receive orders for the marriage season,” he said.