In recent years, Southeast Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam have become “factories” for many international brands. Labor-intensive industries such as clothing and shoemaking have become their main industries. For example, clothing manufacturing is in Bangladesh. , one of Cambodia’s pillar industries. Bangladesh has always been the world’s second largest textile exporter. According to official statistics, garment exports account for more than 80% of Bangladesh’s total merchandise exports, employing more than 4 million people. The textile and clothing industry is crucial to Bangladesh’s economic development and people’s lives. important.
However, Vietnam’s sustainable industrial development and strong labor regulations have enabled the country to achieve success in the textile field has made tremendous progress and has become one of the strongest competitors in Bangladesh’s garment export field. This year, despite the severe impact of the epidemic on exports, Vietnam’s performance in traditional manufacturing is still eye-catching. From July 2019 to June 2020, statistics from Bangladesh show that Vietnam’s garment exports fell by 3% (Bangladesh’s decline (18%) reached 30 billion US dollars, becoming the runner-up in the global export market, second only to China.
Breaking news! Vietnam has surpassed Bangladesh to become the world’s second largest garment exporter
In recent years, Bangladesh’s textile and garment industry has developed rapidly and has become one of the most important garment producers in the world. HM, Major global clothing companies such as Gap purchase goods from Bangladesh. However, hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh reopened on Sunday despite a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, raising concerns about the potential for disadvantaged groups, mainly women, in the industry to Worry about getting infected by the virus. The report pointed out that due to the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, some well-known international brands have canceled or postponed orders worth billions of dollars, causing a serious impact on the garment processing industry, which accounts for almost all of Bangladesh’s export revenue.
Garment factories in Bangladesh were closed in late March to comply with lockdown measures, but some suppliers said foreign clothing brand retailers were urging them to complete outstanding export orders.
Affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, most garment factories in Bangladesh were forced to close in March. It is estimated that social isolation measures have cost Bangladesh at least US$6 billion. According to a report by the US National Public Radio (NPR) on April 3, at least a quarter of textile workers in Bangladesh have been laid off, numbering more than one million people. As manufacturing companies in major garment countries such as China and Cambodia have recently begun to resume operations, if Bangladesh does not take practical and effective actions to resume production, it will lose a relatively large share of the global garment OEM market.
Reports indicate that Bangladesh has more than 4 million workers working in thousands of garment factories. Last year, Bangladesh exported $35 billion worth of clothing to retailers such as H&M, Inditex and Walmart, second only to China. Bangladesh is the world’s second largest textile exporter. According to official statistics, garment exports account for more than 80% of Bangladesh’s total merchandise exports, employing more than 4 million people. The textile and garment industry is crucial to Bangladesh’s economic development and people’s lives.
According to statistics from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, from July 2019 to June 2020, Bangladesh’s garment exports were US$27 billion, and Vietnam’s garment exports Exports reached US$30 billion. Vietnam has surpassed Bangladesh to become the world’s second largest garment exporter.
Japan has tasted the sweetness of Vietnam, and thousands of Japanese companies are vying to gain access to Vietnam
In the past ten years, In 2017, Bangladesh and Vietnam were equally competitive in apparel exports. However, Bangladesh mainly exports low-priced clothing. Vietnam mainly exports high-priced clothing.
Affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, Bangladesh’s clothing exports fell by 18.12% in the last fiscal year. During the same period, Vietnam’s export revenue fell by 3.09%. People in the Bangladeshi garment industry believe that the free trade agreement signed between the EU and Vietnam in June last year will take effect from next summer.
On August 17, the online version of Vietnam’s “Investor News” published news that more than 1,400 Japanese companies are studying to expand reproduction in Vietnam. This news from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) says that more and more Japanese companies are shifting their business focus to Southeast Asian countries, and Vietnam is an investment target country that Japanese companies are willing to choose.
According to the annual survey report conducted by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), 41% of the Japanese companies surveyed (1,460 companies) are studying the next three years Expanding reproduction in Vietnam, this ratio increased by 5.5% compared with the same period last year.
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) sent a questionnaire to 9,975 Japanese companies that may be interested in expanding reproduction overseas, and finally selected 3,562 companies (accounting for 35.7%) Responses to the questionnaire were received.
Among the companies that responded, 36.3% responded that they are willing to expand production in Thailand. This proportion is higher than the same period last year Increase�1.5%. And 48.1% of companies responded that they would strengthen the expansion of reproduction in China, which was 7.3% lower than the same period last year.
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) report stated: “Since 2018, the escalating trade war between China and the United States has prompted Japanese companies to transfer production capacity to Southeast Asian countries, and Japanese companies have invested in The difference between ASEAN countries and Japanese companies investing in China increased from 10.2 billion yen in 2017 to 20.4 billion yen (191 million U.S. dollars) in 2019.”
The report also stated , due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, it is expected that about 80% of Japanese companies with overseas investments will see a sharp decline in their operating performance in 2020. Japanese companies surveyed are expected to invest in the following Asian countries: 91.4% of Japanese companies expand investment in India; 89.4% of Japanese companies expand investment in Malaysia; 88.4% of Japanese companies expand investment in Thailand; 84.4% of Japanese companies expand investment in The Philippines expands investment; 84.4% of Japanese companies expand investment in Indonesia.
Competition in Southeast Asia makes industry insiders uneasy and deserves Chinese people’s vigilance
Huawei also relied on declining sales in the second quarter Being smaller than Samsung and becoming the champion of the mobile phone market is very similar to Vietnam’s overtaking Bangladesh this time, but there are two differences. First, Vietnam is overtaking in exports. Since its main customers are in European and American countries where the epidemic is severe, the difficulty of overtaking in exports is still higher than the difficulty of growing the domestic market. Second, Huawei’s domestic sales were achieved when the domestic epidemic was under control. Although Vietnam was not seriously affected by the epidemic, the epidemic is still ongoing. It should be said that both of them got to the top by being slower than others. Although they don’t feel very hardcore, they are still not easy.
Although there is still a big gap between China’s export volume of 30 billion US dollars in a full year and China’s export volume of hundreds of billions of US dollars at every turn, there are still three points that should be alert to the Chinese people, and even It makes some people in the industry feel uneasy:
First, there is no domestic statistics on “ready-made garments”, and the closest indicator is “clothing”. In the first half of 2020, the cumulative exports were US$51.1 billion, a decrease 19%, and exports to the United States dropped by 30%, both of which are obviously more severe than Vietnam’s clothing export situation. But even so, the position of the boss is still stable in the short term.
Second, the apparel export index has been unable to resume growth since it began to decline in 2015, and its share is of course declining. In addition, domestic clothing demand, which has always been good in the first half of 2020, has also declined, and both large and small clothing factories can feel considerable pressure.
Third, although our exports of clothing-related textile yarns, fabrics and products and clothing accessories and other broad textiles are still growing, a considerable part of them are exported to Garment manufacturing countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. However, a considerable proportion of raw materials such as cotton and high-end chemical fibers still need to be imported from the United States and Europe. Since the United States and the European Union have imposed strict origin restrictions on Vietnam and other countries, in order to avoid high tariffs, Vietnam and other countries will increase their investment in the front-end clothing industry. Investment or investment promotion in textiles and chemical fibers, etc., these industries also have a tendency to shift to Vietnam and other industries. Judging from the international experience of early industrial transfers, without the support of clothing, the front-end industry will not be able to retain its advantages by taking advantage of the industrial chain for more than 10 years.
In a big country with 1.4 billion people, traditional industries cannot be lost. Policies have proposed that labor-intensive industries should also support the development, so supporting policies must be implemented quickly. I think all companies in the domestic clothing industry are looking forward to it. </p
