In the last two months, about 419 RMG factories in Bangladesh have been closed as the global buyers stopped placing orders.
Nearly one hundred units of those 419 factories went to permanent closure and the rest are waiting for work orders to resume production. Since the last week of March, production at 348 member factories of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and 71 factories registered with the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association had been suspended.
Of the 348 factories, 91 are located in Gazipur, 79 at Ashulia in Dhaka, 70 in Narayanganj, 67 in Chattogram and 40 units are located in the Dhaka city. BKMEA leaders said that 71 of their member factories had remained closed for the last two months due to lack of work orders and a few of them went for permanent closure.
The country’s apparel sectors’ trade bodies on March 25 announced production closure in the RMG factories in line with the general holidays announced by the government to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
From April 26, the factory owners began reopening the factories with the government’s consent in the wake of coronavirus infection. According to BGMEA data a total of 1,150 trade body member factories announced that orders worth $3.18 billion were cancelled by global buyers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
