Textile Trade Performance by Country

South East Asia

INDONESIA: Garment Exports To Key Markets Plunge In H1

Indonesia's textile and garment exports dropped in three of its key markets in the first half of this year as buyers began to cut their orders in favour of rival producers such as China.

Exports to the US plunged to $902 million from $1.1 billion in the year-ago period, with EU exports down to $471m from $583m and Canadian exports down to $33m from $47m in 2001.

The decline reflected the problems faced by the nation’s textile industry, particularly increased worldwide competition. Textile association API warned the industry would "collapse" in 2005 unless the government takes urgent action to help scores of clothing companies that employ tens of thousands of workers.

THE PHILIPPINES: Garment/Textile Exports Slip 9%

Garment and textile exports from the Philippines plunged nearly 9% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2002 to $1.9 billion. Exports to the key US market slumped 11.9 % to $1.4bn but exports to the EU rose about 4% to $220.6 million. However, there was an improvement over July's results when exports fell almost 10% year-on-year.

Clothing and textile exports to non-traditional markets including South Korea and China surged 332% and 121%, respectively, which more than offset falls to leading non-quota markets such as Japan and the UAE.

VIETNAM: Garment Exports Surge To $1.9bn

Vietnam's garment exports have soared 23% year-on-year to $1.88 billion in the first nine months of 2002 on the back of a flood of orders from major international apparel firms. 

The surge were attributed to foreign firms relocating in Vietnam in order to take advantage of its cheap and plentiful workforce and lower utility costs. However, officials warned the nation's textile manufacturers they need to improve the quality of their products.

CAMBODIA: Garment Exports To US & EU Surge

 Cambodia’s garment exports jumped 11.2% in value terms in the first nine months of this year to $904 million from $812m in the year-ago period.  Garment exports to the US soared nearly 12% to $650m in the period while clothing exports to the EU grew 7.7% to $237m. Cambodia's garment industry, which employs around 200,000 workers, generated exports of $1.1 billion last year of which $820m ended up in the US.

West Asia

TAIWAN: Textile Exports Slip In August

Taiwan's textile exports slipped 2.6% year-on-year to just over $1 billion in August. Customs data showed yarn and fabric exports were flat at $698 million, while garment exports plunged 15.5 % to $172m and exports of textile goods rose 4.8 %. For the first eight months of this year total textile exports were down 7.3% at $8bn with garment exports down 16.8% at $1.2bn and yarn and fabric exports down 7.2% at $6.2bn.

North West Asia

SOUTH KOREA: Textile Exports Jump In July

Textile exports rose 6.4% in July, the first monthly increase for almost two years. The country’s monthly textile exports grew to almost $1.5 billion having fallen or been flat since October 2000. Synthetic textile exports jumped 33%, yarn exports 31%, nylon yarn exports 80% and fabric exports 10%. However clothing exports fell almost 5%.

MONGOLIAN performance

Mongolia produced and exported 16.2 million items of knitwear worth US64.3 million in 2001. Of all clothing and knitwear factories operating in Mongolia, domestic entrepreneurs have established 39.3% with direct foreign investment and 46.8% as joint ventures. Chinese companies own 35% of foreign invested clothing ventures, 23.7% by South Korean companies and 13.7% by companies based in Hong Kong.

Middle Asia

NEPAL: Garment Exports Upsurge By 49% To USA

The garment industry, the largest exportable manufacturer of Nepal, recorded a recovery in its exports for the first time after a series of downfall since July 2001.One of the hardest hit sectors of the national economy, readymade garments, recorded an upsurge by 49% in its exports to the United States in August as compared to the figures of the same month of the last year. The United States is the largest market of the Nepali garment items, consuming some 85% of the total exports.

During the first eight months this year, readymade garment worth US $ 62.07 million was exported to the US, while the figure was US $ 108.32 million during the corresponding period last year. While the export to EU in August stood at US $ 1.49 million, it was US $ 1.08 million in the same month last year.

Garment exports to Canada during the first eight months of this year plunged by some 79% valued at US $ 0.27 million.

South Asia

SRI LANKA: August Textile/Garment Exports Reach $339m

Sri Lanka's textile and garment export earnings soared 47% in August from the year-ago period on the back of higher orders from the EU and North America. Earnings from textile and garment exports jumped to $339 million in August, highest level for almost two years which helped the country post a trade surplus. The increase in textile and garment exports was largely due to the higher demand from the US, UK , Canada and Germany.

INDIA: Garment Exports Surge 20% In July

According to data revealed, Indian exports of ready-made garment to quota countries surged 20% in July in value terms to $379 million with exports to the US up more than 50% in terms of quantity. In July ready-made clothing exports climbed 15.4% in quantity terms to 93.6 million pieces, despite a 16% fall in exports to Canada.

Exports to the EU rose 3.4% in terms of quantity and 22.7% in value terms in July, with exports in the first four months of 2002 up around 9% in both terms to 376.6 million pieces worth $1.4 billion.

BANGLADESH: Garment Exports Plunge, 300,000 Jobs Axed

Clothing exports fell 5.7% to $4.58 billion in the year to June compared to the year-ago period amid the global economic slowdown and increased competition from rival apparel-making countries. This is the first fall in Bangladeshi garment export in more than 20 years.

EU was its biggest customer with a 52.7% slice of the market, followed by the US with a 40 % share. The slump in export orders has led to 300,000 garment workers losing their jobs as more than 1,000 garment plants have been forced to close down in the past year.

PAKISTAN: Value Added Textile Exports Jump 20% 

Pakistan revealed a 20.7% year-on-year jump to $1.69 billion in exports of value added textiles to quota countries in the first nine months of 2002.. In quantity terms, exports to the US, EU and Turkey all increased but there was a fall in exports to Canada in terms of quantity and value.

Europe

TURKEY: Fall In Regional Exports Of  Knitted Goods

Exports of knitted textiles from Turkey's South-Eastern Anatolia Project fell to $21.5 million in the first half from $26.8m in the year-ago period. The main destinations for those knitted items were the US, Greece, Belgium, France and Israel.

Latin America

MEXICO: Textile Industry On The Road To Recovery

Mexico's textile industry lost 32,000 workers in 2001 but it is now on the road to recovery with more than 8,000 jobs created in the first half of this year and brighter times just around the corner. 

Although second quarter textile output fell 2.9% from the year-ago period, output was higher than the previous two quarters. The sector now employs almost 160,000 people and textile sales to Mexican apparel exporters jumped 20% in the first half of 2002 to $836 million, although total textile exports slipped 1.6% to $2 billion.

Apparel exports to the US fell 4.7% in the first half but increased shipments to nations such as Barbados and the Dominican Republic helped offset that slide which was blamed on the economic impact of September 11.

However, the country's 2,000 textile and garment enterprises would only be able to survive fierce competition from major Asian rivals such as China and Vietnam by cutting costs and upgrading technology.

The officials also called on the authorities to crackdown on counterfeiters and producers of fake apparel which cost the industry $10m a year as well as firms which dodge import quotas and customs duties.

Back To Index Of October 2002