The largest textile and garment machinery expo in South Asia began on Wednesday at the International Convention City, Bashundhara
Since the textile and apparel industries are gradually expanding as a result of the shifting of work orders to Bangladesh, the world’s suppliers of machinery for the textile and apparel industries recognized Bangladesh as having enormous business potential.
The 17th Dhaka International Textile and Garment (DTG) 2023, the largest textile and garment machinery expo in South Asia, began on Wednesday at the International Convention City, Bashundhara (ICCB) in Dhaka.
Following a three-year hiatus caused by Covid-19, the international vendors are now presenting capital equipment and textile products at the expo.
The exhibitors are optimistic about capturing the more than $4 billion textile and apparel machinery market in Bangladesh, which is experiencing a 20% year-over-year sales growth due to its excellent textile and apparel production capabilities.
Gianpiero Valsecchi, sales area manager of Santoni, an Italian manufacturer of textile machines with operations in China, stated that Bangladesh is a good market for the company because business rose even during the Covid-19 period.
“In the last two years, the business grew roughly 40% year on year in Bangladesh despite the Covid-19 impacts because a lot of businessmen booked for machinery online as they could not travel abroad due to Covid-19,” he added.
Bangladesh will continue to grow its textile and garment business as global clothing retailers and brands are shifting the work orders here from other countries.
However, currently, the demand for clothing items is a bit low as an outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, but it will also be corrected soon, he said.
Thomas Streicher, area sales and product manager of Trutzschler, a German machinery company echoed the same.
“Bangladesh is one of his most potential markets as the international retailers and brands are coming here with a lot of work orders,” he said, adding that Bangladesh has the advantage of a competitive labour force and good know-how.
“We delivered a lot of machines here and we are very much optimistic that the Bangladesh market will grow a lot in future,” he said.
His company mainly supplies spinning machines and so far the company supplied 600 machines to his customers in Bangladesh.
“Of course, Bangladesh is the number one destination for my company as the sales are increasing with high demand from the customers,” said Ikuto Umeda, CEO of Shima Seiki (Hong Kong) Ltd said.
Umeda’s company supplied 20,000 units of machinery to 200 local customers over the last seven years.
During the Covid-19 and an ongoing war, European consumers are having a hard time which also slowed down the sales to a bit in Bangladesh, he said.
Akai Lin, overseas director of Chan Chao International Co, the organizer of the exhibition said for the first time his company held the machinery expo in Dhaka in 2004 and then Bangladesh was the fourth largest apparel supplier worldwide and now eventually the country is the second largest garment exporter which indicates the strength of the sector.
According to him, as local business owners invest heavily in the man-made fibre sector to increase their market share, there is an increase in demand for the machinery used to produce these materials in Bangladesh.
The four-day event had 1200 companies from 35 different nations attending, according to Judy Wang, executive director (overseas) of Chan Chao International.
As the nature of productivity in various industries changed over the past several years, she added, the expo featured primarily high technology and modern machinery with high productivity.
The fact that so many businesses are interested in investing in Bangladesh is the reason why international retailers and brands are drawn to the country.
At the opening of the event Salman F Rahman, advisor of the prime minister on private industries and investment suggested that local entrepreneurs invest more in manmade fibre.
70% of the world’s total clothing commerce is composed of man-made fibre, yet 90% of Bangladesh’s clothing is made of cotton and cotton-blend fibre.
According to him, Bangladesh’s investment in the textile and apparel industries is being hampered by the rising cost of energy.
Additionally, he advised local businesses to make investments in the production of machinery, possibly through joint ventures.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) president, Md Jashim Uddin, stated that Bangladesh has set an aim to export goods worth $300 billion by 2041.
He stated that cutting-edge and environmentally friendly clothing will aid in reaching the goal.
President of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association Mohammad Ali Khokon praised the government for taking action to alleviate the nation’s energy problems by importing LNG.
