Affected By The Epidemic Situation, Vietnam'S Garment Industry Is Difficult To Achieve The Set Export Target

According to Vietnam news on October 8, Vietnam textile and clothing association (vitas) said that affected by the epidemic, Vietnam's textile and clothing industry may not be able to achieve its production and business goals. The Association believes that the last three months of this year are extremely difficult for the textile industry. The biggest risk is the disruption of supply chain caused by customers transferring orders to other markets. The second reason is that workers return to their hometown in order to avoid the epidemic, resulting in labor shortage. As a result, it is difficult for the industry to meet the export target of US $39 billion for the whole year, which is the same as that in 2019 before the outbreak.

According to the association, there may be three scenarios for the development of the domestic clothing industry this year: the most optimistic situation is that if Vietnam controls the epidemic situation and enters the "new normal" from the beginning of October, the annual export volume may reach about 37.5-38 billion US dollars. In the second case, if the epidemic continues, there will still be some places and industrial zones under blockade or isolation before November, and the export volume is expected to reach about 36-36.5 billion US dollars. In the worst case, the epidemic will last until early December 2021, and the export volume of the industry is expected to be only US $33.5-34 billion. Next year, if the production and operation situation returns to normal, the textile and garment industry will strive to achieve an export turnover of 39-42 billion US dollars.

In August, the export turnover of clothing industry decreased by 15.9% month on month and 2.63% year on year. In September, the export volume was estimated to be 3 billion US dollars, which continued to decline by 9.2% month on month and 10.5% year-on-year. However, in the first nine months of this year, the industry still had a trade surplus of US $11 billion, including a total export of US $29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%. In the first nine months, the total import volume of materials and accessories was about 18 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 27.9%.

(source: website of the Ministry of Commerce)