The textile and garment industry was clearly preparing for spring recovery, but
suddenly encountered the cold air of foreign trade, which caused The temperature of the industry plummeted!
Cancellation of orders, suspension of work and production, notices of holidays coming one after another…
A cold spring? !
“The clothing factory located in Dalian has announced a holiday.”
“The shoe factory located in Dongguan, the company encourages us to resign collectively.”
“The textile factory in Zhejiang has announced a holiday.”
…
A notice about the shutdown of a garment factory went viral on WeChat Moments…
Development has never been done behind closed doors. Under globalization, China affects the world, and the world also affects China. Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, China’s economy has stalled, and the world has been affected by the shutdown of the world’s factories. Nowadays, after a difficult fight against the epidemic, many domestic industries have begun to slowly resume work. Even the catering and service industries and large shopping malls have begun to resume operations. However, there is one industry that has gone through all kinds of hardships to apply for resumption of work, but has once again suffered a fatal blow. This industry is the foreign trade industry, especially the textile and apparel industry, which accounts for the largest proportion of exports. Many orders from factories have been cancelled, and the foreign trade industry is completely in the cold.
The textile and clothing foreign trade industry encounters a cold wave
International textile and apparel trade declined: The epidemic has spread to the world, and the world’s major fashion production and market centers have become epidemic areas. The epidemic has triggered a financial earthquake and the global economic downturn has led to a decline in international textile and apparel trade and export orders. Textile production and trading companies have been in trouble.
“I am engaged in foreign trade of clothing. It has not been long since I resumed work, and now I am facing the pain of no orders. The epidemic abroad is still I don’t know when it will end, so I can only wait.”
The overseas epidemic suddenly got out of control, and the economy began to shut down instantly. The momentum that Chinese foreign trade companies have just recovered has been suppressed by the overseas epidemic.
The domestic textile industry has been hardest hit by the overseas epidemic. Textile factories that specialize in exports receive a large number of overseas order cancellations every day.
“Adidas and Nike in Canada are closed.”
“I have an order from JCP, and I sent an email today to inform us of the suspension. “Yes.”
“My order for 300,000 meters was canceled yesterday. The customer called for a pause. All production was already on the machine. How can I stop it? I can’t really do it now. It’s nothing if you don’t do it, it’s a mess.”
…
The boss is worried, and the employees are even more worried. Affected by the epidemic, overseas merchants can only transfer the money they have already paid. The delivery of orders was delayed, orders without payment were canceled one after another, and no new orders were placed. A large number of employees in the foreign trade industry began to complain:
“Foreign trade is going to be cold. Today the manager said that several major American customers are canceling orders. The company will not go bankrupt, right? I originally wanted to do this this year.” I hope I can work hard.”
“The most worrying thing has happened. American customers have begun to cancel orders. There is no way to postpone them. Most of the orders are gone. The situation is like this. Is it serious?”
“All I received in the morning were news of order cancellations from Europe and the United States. The boss personally came down to hold an emergency meeting, canceled all European and American orders, and stopped taking orders. Too bad It’s terrible. I think if the epidemic in Europe and the United States continues to develop like this, the foreign trade industry will have to take a break.”
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Whether orders are canceled or reduced, these Life is tough for enterprises. Most of them are labor-intensive industries. Nowadays, reducing labor costs is a general trend. Many enterprises are forced to take “holidays” in order to reduce operating costs. As for when the holiday will last, it may be two to three months or longer. It all depends on the effectiveness of global epidemic prevention and control and the degree of economic recovery.
If an employee voluntarily proposes to resign, the salary can also be paid until the end of March this year, calculated based on the actual number of days.
On March 21, a large manufacturing company in Dongguan had to declare a three-month holiday because its largest customer, FOSSIL of the United States, canceled all orders. The future is worrying. .
The impact affects the upstream and downstream of clothing, domestic and foreign countries
The epidemic in Europe and the United States has affected spring and summer orders for clothing foreign trade, and winter clothing bosses are also worried about being affected.
Although the sales season for down jackets is in late autumn and winter, a down jacket production factory owner said that since the outbreak of the epidemic in Europe, his heart has been hanging, “I am worried about epidemic control.” If you don’t, the order will be cancelled.” The European customers of this factory are located in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries, which have been severely affected by the epidemic recently.
Boss Cao Hui (pseudonym) told Caijing reporters that the number of samples and materials sent to Italy has exceededIt takes half a year. What we can do now is that cash is king and we should not accumulate inventory to avoid being owed money.
Many bosses said that they are already doing psychological preparation to fight the epidemic for a long time. “The next three to six months may be difficult.” A cloth merchant said. But in the long run, he is not worried, “I am still confident in defeating the epidemic.” Another cloth merchant surnamed Wang also believes that the market will not change all of a sudden, but will get better in 3 to 6 months.
From a retail perspective, some people in the industry believe that at this stage, surviving the epidemic and crisis is the most fundamental thing. Brands must pool the strength of the entire company to do several things. The first is to protect the capital chain, the second is to clear inventory, and the third is to expand online channels.
Some garment industry practitioners currently generally believe that there will not be a so-called retaliatory rebound in consumption after the epidemic. Since purchasing intentions were suppressed during the epidemic, there will be a decrease in consumption after consumption resumes. The climax has emerged, and they hope that clothing consumption will return to previous levels after the epidemic passes.
The clothing practitioner said that some clothing companies are currently laying out summer, autumn and winter products, but there is no bigger bet than the same period last year. “Every aspect of economic life will be affected in 2020, and the consumer confidence index will not recover too well.” The possible situation is that due to financial strength, some brands have stopped operating and been eliminated, and the market has been divided up by brands with stronger financial strength. Therefore, for For some brands, the possibility of market reshuffling is an opportunity.
She predicts that clothing consumption will not recover until May 1, and hopes that the “May Day” holiday will bring a qualitative leap to the market recovery.
Large producers are already seeing signs of improvement. The person in charge of production of a large manufacturer said that in the Chinese market, some customers did cut orders due to lowering demand forecasts in the early days of the epidemic, but recently some customers have increased their order quantities. “They believe that the domestic epidemic has been controlled, and they expect business to Growth will resume.” He said that some other customers, because other suppliers have not yet resumed normal production, have turned to place orders with Esquel.
A clothing supplier said that as the domestic epidemic is brought under control , the domestic market may improve next, “Many people can already move around, and my wholesaler expects to be able to purchase goods nationwide in ten days.”
For brands and industrial chains For factories, maybe now is the time to be bold and careful. “I suggest that everyone should place some firm orders now, leaving 30%-40% of the expected amount. You can advance to attack and retreat to defend. If the market does not rebound as expected in the future, there is still room for maneuver. If the recovery is better, You can also add orders quickly.</p
