Textile firms in paupers’ clothes

For example, Thien Nam Textile Garment director Tran Dang Chuc said the company had exported nothing in the past few weeks since the price of fibre products fell 15-20 per cent.

Thien Nam’s 1,800 workers are performing perfunctory production since major import markets China and Turkey sank in volume and price.

“We need to weigh up interest rates and the material situation as if we export more, the bigger the losses will be,” said Chuc.

Garmex Saigon general director Nguyen An said since garment product retail sales in Europe shed 30 per cent in the past months, its big customers in this market announced a 30 per cent drop in orders from Vietnam.

“The garment sector eyed a 30 per cent decline in export orders, driving small firms into a fix due to their low competitiveness,” An added.

In this context, several firms have found way-out such as Garmex Saigon.

“We have orders until September 2012. In the first four months of 2012, the company reaped VND300 billion ($14.2 million) in export value and VND20 billion ($952,000) in profits, tantamount to 30 per cent of the projection,” said An, adding that its full year targets would be attainable if nothing changed.

To reach these goals, the company has exerted energy into boosting labour productivity. Besides, from 2012’s second quarter Garmex Saigon opened a Hongkong based office to directly purchase materials and opened retail outlets in US market.

In addition, right at this time the company hooks into producing sample items for 2013.

In another case, in the first five months of 2012 Hanoi-based Ho Guom Garment reached the same growth as in a corresponding period in 2011 though export order pricing rates slid 10 per cent, according to company’s chairwoman Ninh Thi Ty.

The textile garment sector aims to achieve $15 billion export value in 2012, hiking 12 per cent on-year. However, its January-May export value was $5.3 billion only, 35 per cent of the year’s projection, of which the export value of fibre products slid 6 per cent on-year falling to $132 million.