Due to the pandemic situation, European Union and the world put the effort into textiles, clothes, footwear, and accessories supply chains, in the midst of an ongoing social and climate crisis. On another hand, the COVID has seriously impacted major manufacturing hubs (China, India, and Italy), leading to major supply disorders. Textile industry is the heart of our economy. We have developed our industry a lot and there are so many remarkable developments we have already achieved i.e Green Industry, Compliance Factory, industry best practices etc. Team Textile Focus has been taking feedback from the local and international industry stakeholders regarding their business and planning in this pandemic situation. Recently Team Textile Focus talked with Atish Ardeshir Huq, Director, ASSL Textile and received his feedback as follows-
Covid in Bangladesh will not have any negative impact on garment export. Bangladesh remains the best prepared in terms of expertise & experience to benefit from the transition by China from the ‘rag’ trade to the electronic future. A good indicator is the Garment Manufacturers opposition to factory closure proposed by the Government for the pandemic surge.
On the contrary, garment export will grow substantially this year on. China has transferred most production across the border to Vietnam, who remains our biggest competitor. Myanmar, which was gradually inching towards apparel production has political instability that is expected to last for some time. Cambodia is lacking any semblance of efficiency in this sector and will take many years to achieve acceptability by the tough garment cartel. Others like Africa despite being given preferential benefits will take decades to shed their lethargic habits.
Textile will have a tremendous boom because of above. New investments in spinning will be increased by $500 Million. Three main sectors that will grow are Knit garment, home textile & denim! And despite of a temporary rise in Cotton prices, the phenomenal rise in yarn prices, due to last year’s loss in productivity vis a vis 2021 upsurge in demand, has seen a phenomenal race to set up or expand yarn Mills. However due to Covid time production downsizing, machinery suppliers have now a 12-24 months delivery.
Bangladesh with its yet cheap but relatively efficient productive labour & other advantages in affordable utility costs will be sought after as the future hub of Apparel Production as we have the above advantages in the region and beyond. This is the time for our Garment Manufacturers to unite and negotiate better pricing for our sector to contribute even more to our overall economy.
