Trade turnover of garment and textile plunges in first four months

The garment and textile sector saw slower business in the first four months

According to the statistics published by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), the total import-export turnover of the garment and textile sector in the first four months was $17.04 billion. The yarn export turnover saw a deep decline by 12 per cent to $1.18 billion and nonwoven fabric by 22 per cent.

The import turnover for fabric and raw cotton was down 11 and 8 per cent to $3.63 trillion and $345 million, respectively.

The trade surplus of this industry in the first four months was $5.38 billion, signifying a decrease of 3.19 per cent on-year.

The two major reasons of these bleak results come from the impact of the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vitas forecast that the garment and textile industry’s future will remain bleak this year with the plunge in both import-export turnover for the whole year. Vitas issued numerous scripts for this industry. Accordingly, by the most optimistic expectations, the trade turnover of this sector will touch $35 billion, down 10 per cent on-year and the worst case scenario is $30-31 billion.

Textiles is one of the industries using the highest number of workers, most of whom are unable to switch to other jobs in the current situation. Therefore, maintaining employment and income for workers is not only a vital business problem but also a great impact on society.

These enterprises have proposed the government to quickly disburse the approved economic stimulus packages and consider the partial use of the unemployment insurance fund and social insurance fund to help businesses continue paying their workers.

Under the growing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, face mask production is considered a viable solution for garment companies to maintain operations and offset losses from lower demand for garments.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 50 local garment firms have reported that they could produce eight million face masks per day, or around 200 million per month.

The figure would be higher if the nationwide production capacity is taken into account, said the ministry, thus Vietnam is capable of becoming a major exporter of cloth face masks in the world, the governmental portal reported, citing the ministry.